Floor Statements

It is so good to be with you. I thank the gentleman for his leadership on this issue. You have just been a stalwart on this.

As we have looked at what it takes to address the energy needs of our Nation and how we should go about that, of course, we all know that one of the things we have to do is look at all of the above. And we began talking about this last year and spent some time talking about that we needed an all-of-the-above strategy to make certain that we addressed every component that was out there, every possibility that was going to be held. It is an honor to serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee with the gentleman from Illinois. It is also an honor to work with the Select Committee on Energy Independence. We know that this is a direction where we need to move towards energy independence. We know that we need to do this in a thoughtful way. We also know that we need to do this without raising taxes on the American people. Certainly that is possible.

As the gentleman and my colleague from Minnesota were both saying, the taxes that are out there are of tremendous concern to us. I appreciate the poster that the gentleman has where it shows what it is going to cost every family for this cap-and-tax scheme that the Democrat leadership is wanting to put in place. The MIT researchers feel that this tax is going to end up being $3,100 per family. That is something that is going to far exceed even the $1,600 that we see there.

It basically is a tax every time you turn on the light switch, every time you plug in the coffee pot and every time you turn on the computer. Every single time you go to use any energy source, you are going to be paying a tax. That means if you freeze your food, you're going to pay more. If you cook your food, you're going to pay more. Everything you use is going to end up costing you more, $3,128 per family per year. That is not my estimate. It is not Mr. Shimkus' estimate. That is the estimate from researchers at MIT as they look at this. And CBO, the Congressional Budget Office, also warns us of the burden that this is going to place on our middle income and our working families here in this country.

Many of my constituents are saying, ``what in the world is a cap-and- trade, or what is a cap-and-tax?'' And they are asking about how this would go about. And they can't believe that with the greenhouse gasses and the carbon emissions that you would have to go in and buy permits to use this. Indeed, our agricultural community is very concerned about this because what we are hearing from our friends across the aisle is that there would be a tax on every head of cattle. There would be a tax on every pig. What is that going to do? It is going to increase the cost of the food that you eat.

We know that it doesn't stop there, and the taxing doesn't stop there. The gentleman has talked some about coal and clean coal technologies. He has talked about nuclear power and the importance of having that in our strategy of how we solve this problem. What is the best way to take action? Of course, we know that it is going to be more difficult for our electric power generators to generate the electricity that we are going to need. We know that for anyone that works or deals with hydrocarbons, it is going to drive their costs up. Certainly our trucking and logistics companies are going to see incredible increases in taxes. All of that doesn't get equated and rolled into the $3,128 per family that this would cost. These are all additional costs that would be seen in the increased cost of commodities that everyone is going to have to pay.

Now, one of the things that I have thought was, it's really quite curious, in all of this discussion, we all know that the best economic stimulus is a job. And you can't go anywhere right now without hearing about the economy. We all are worried about the recession and the length of the recession. We are worried about how we can energize this economy. We know the best economic stimulus is a job. And we know that the stimulus plans and the budget, all these ideas that have come from the Democrat side of the aisle, they tax too much, they borrow too much, and they spend too much. We all recognize this. But jobs growth is one of the things that we have focused on. Certainly with pushing the stimulus, we heard from the administration and the Democrat leadership, well, it was going to create 3 or 4 million new jobs. Well, as we have looked at this cap-and-tax proposal alone, just that portion of it, not looking at any other portion of it, we have seen that there are estimates that have come to us from CBO that the cap and tax could cost us as many as 3 or 4 million jobs. So putting this tax in place in the budget

would negate all the jobs that they think they would create by going through the stimulus and the money that they have put out there in the form of spending.

Also, I think that there has been much discussion about green jobs, and would this proposal create new green jobs? There is a good bit of study on this from Heritage Foundation and some others that say, no, such a proposal would actually reduce economic growth, reduce the gross domestic product and reduce employment opportunities. So for those of us who look at this as an issue of how we recover, what are the steps we take for this economy to recover, how do we reduce the tax burden, and then we look at the analysis not from you and me, but from outside entities, we see that this cap-and-tax scheme would be something that would be a jobs killer and a reduction in the gross domestic product of our Nation.

And I yield back to the gentleman from Illinois.

Well, my constituents ask this regularly, and I have had an opportunity this week to meet with some of my constituents who are in the auto manufacturing industry and who work in logistics. Their question is always what in the world do people in Washington think they are doing? Are they that removed from what is happening in our communities? Do they not understand how jobs growth takes place?

You've got to have some incentives there for jobs growth to take place. Certainly, it seems there is a disconnect here.

My constituents know you cannot spend your way to recovery, and you cannot build recovery on a foundation of debt. They absolutely understand that. And they are very concerned that in the midst of this recession, which troubles us all, and as you look at the jobs loss that is taking place, the amount of jobs loss that has taken place the first quarter of this year, we know that to increase taxes, you can go back and look time and again at how things have taken place through our history. Certainly you can look at the late seventies. If you want a recent example, look at what transpired in 1977, 1978, 1979 and 1980, I was a young mom at that point in time, 13 percent mortgage on homes, 20 percent inflation. Raising taxes in a recession does not work. We do know that lowering the rate of taxation and spurring economic growth is good for Main Street, it is good for the American people, and it is good for our GDP and for our government and our economy.

If the gentleman would yield, I wish you would read that quote one more time because as we talk about renewables and the renewable standards that are being placed out there that would be so harmful to our electric power generators, I think this is very important.

If the gentleman will yield, I hope you will put those figures on the amount of space it would take for the wind turbines and other components to fuel one steel factory. I would imagine your research also shows that one steel factory probably has one power generation area, and it would be interesting to see the amount of acreage required for that. But I would encourage the gentleman to put this on his Website so that constituents of ours who are listening to this debate can pull those down because what we are hearing is as people have moved to growing corn and growing products to make renewable fuels and ethanol and the bio-diesels, but especially the ethanol, we are hearing of food shortages in some areas because corn is not being used for food. And certainly Haiti and some other countries that have food shortages, we have that documented evidence that shows that there is a need to move that production into the food arena and not

necessarily into the ethanol area because of the food shortages that are existing in this world today. And certainly also because of the subsidies that are required to make ethanol affordable and to get the amount of energy that is used in producing a gallon of ethanol, to get that down.

Certainly research and innovation will help us with the renewables, but we are not to the point where this can become the primary source of our electricity, or it is going to shut down our manufacturing, our productivity, the movement of our transportation fuels, the use of transportation fuels, the movement of products and commodities around our country, and the ability of people to be able to go from one area of the country to another in a reasonable amount of time.

It is something that is of tremendous concern to us because as I said earlier, the best economic stimulus is a job. And all of the outside research and the data we have been able to compile shows that this is not going to create jobs, it is going to cost us, and there is going to be a negative impact on our GDP.

I yield back to the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, in the land of spend too much, borrow too much and tax too much, and in the age of the trillion-dollar deficits, the American taxpayers deserve to know where their hard- earned money is being spent.

After the $1.63 trillion spent in the stimulus and TARP bills, we need a system for transparency and accountability. That is why I have introduced the TARP and Stimulus Reporting and Waste Prevention Act. This bill requires complete disclosure of the TARP and stimulus spending, and it goes further than the President's ``Recovery.gov.'' It establishes a waste, fraud and abuse hotline that provides protection to all whistleblowers, including Federal employees.

The bill will promote accountability policies for government agencies and companies that benefit from the bailout in the stimulus so that taxpayers know that their money is not going to big bonuses and lavish resorts.

We owe it to the taxpayers to ensure that these funds are being used for designated purposes. It is their money, and they deserve to know.

Mr. Speaker, a wise man once said, ``Treat each federal tax dollar as if it was hard earned; it was--by a taxpayer.''

The Democrats of this House need a reminder that every dollar they have been signing away is a hard-earned American dollar.

Let's take that $787 billion stimulus bill that they passed and that the American taxpayers will have to repay. That's going to cost every taxpayer in this country over $4,000. We know that Americans are hurting, that we are in a recession, and that now is no time to raise taxes and increase their share of this national debt. That's all money that they could be using for household necessities.

And they are a little bit weary when they hear about projects they're going to be required to fund, like a foot bridge in St. Louis, or $8 billion for the Disneyland to Las Vegas train, or $200,000 for tattoo removal, or millions for the Speaker's mouse.

So let's remember those wise words before we start signing off on all these pork barrel spending projects for special interests. Let's treat every Federal taxpayer dollar as what it is, hard earned by the Federal taxpayer.

Madam Speaker, it is a privilege to rise today to honor and recognize an outstanding citizen of Germantown, Tennessee, Mr. Doug Warner.

For the past 22 years, Doug has volunteered for the Mountain Tennessee Outreach Project (T.O.P) which attends to the spiritual, physical, emotional or social needs of rural Tennessee residents. Doug has led more than 50 trips to the counties in Tennessee this organization aids and brought much comfort to those families in distress. Doug has also been there in times of tragedy by collecting and distributing supplies to aid in the recovery efforts after natural disasters such as the Ivan, Katrina and Rita hurricanes.

Besides his work with Mountain T.O.P., Doug has organized numerous other volunteer projects in order to help the lives of his fellow citizens and make his community better. Through his service on the Habitat for Humanity Board, Doug has sponsored and built more than 29 Habitat houses as well as collecting donated furniture and accessories to help these families to a new beginning. Doug and his family continue to be an active part of the Germantown United Methodist Church.

Through this service and countless other accomplishments, the quality of life of many Tennesseans has been greatly improved because of Doug's leadership, experience and willingness to give. Congratulations to Mr. Doug Warner on being named Citizen of the Year 2008 by the Germantown, Tennessee Lions Club.

I thank the gentlelady from Illinois so much for yielding, and I appreciate her yielding the time to me. And we have other members of our Republican conference who are here, female members, who are coming to talk about the issues that we know are affecting our constituents and we know are affecting women in our districts.

As the gentlelady from Illinois has mentioned, the number one thing that we do hear from our constituents, and especially our women small business owners, is their concerns over the economy; and they are concerned about the economic security, the retirement security that is in front of them as they look to winding down their careers. And they are also very concerned about what is happening for the secured opportunities of future generations and the security that they will want to enjoy.

I have a chart with me that I think says a lot about what we see happening here in Washington now as well as what is going to be coming in years to come.

Let's go back and look at the deficit. We are hearing a lot about the deficit and the data. Some of my constituents last week were saying, well, we continue to hear this comment that they inherited this debt. How could that be? Everyone has been voting on this for years.

So we made a chart looking at Federal spending going back to January 2007 through today. And, of course, in 2007 is when all of the problems really started to manifest themselves in the housing industry and leading toward the situations that we saw happening with the banks that began in early 2008, and then moving on into the budget situation that we have today. So we prepared a chart to lay out what has happened since January 2007, with our Federal deficit, which is the line that you will see in green, the graphing in green.

Then, discretionary spending, which is that portion of our budget that we actually can get into and make some decisions about how we are going to spend those dollars, and that is where we should be reducing what the Federal government spends.

Then, mandatory spending. Much of that is the entitlements which the gentlelady from Illinois just referred to mentioning very appropriately that, yes, indeed, we do have an entitlement crisis that is coming, and that is spending that is going to have to be dealt with in order for the future generations to enjoy security, whether it is economic security, whether it is freedom and opportunity.

Take a look at what has happened. You can see where we were in January 2007. And the debt, the Federal debt, at that point in time was right over $8 trillion. Our deficit in 2007 was just over $400 billion.

Now let's look at what happened. The first stimulus plan that was passed early last year, $152 billion, you can see what that did to the federal deficit. It really popped it up. You can also see what that did to discretionary spending. And then look at what happened with pre- TARP, the amount of money, the $300 billion, that went into those loans from March to September of 2008 when we were dealing with Bear Stearns, Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, IndyMac and AIG. You can see what happened with our deficit, which is the green line, the discretionary spending, and the bump-ups that came there, and then you see the mandatory spending rising as we move through that. Then TARP in September 2008, you can see what happened there with the $700 billion and the escalation that has carried forth there, the auto bailout of $14 billion.

President Obama's second stimulus, we call this plan B, and that ended up being $1 trillion. You see what it did to our deficit. We are at over $2 trillion in deficit for this fiscal year so far. Also you can see what happened with our discretionary spending. And take a look at what has happened with our mandatory spending through there. And then of course the omnibus, the $410 billion omnibus bill that had passed the House and it is still in the Senate without a resolution to it.

So through all of these votes, I will highlight that the Speaker, our President who was in the Senate, and Leader Reid in the Senate, all were ``yes'' votes on that. They were part of driving this deficit and these discretionary spending hikes, the mandatory spending spikes that you are seeing over there also.

And by the way, going back to January 2007, that is when the Democrats took control of both Houses, both Chambers, the House and the Senate, and started pushing forward the spending increases. And they have now moved the national debt from just over the $8 trillion that was here to nearly $11 trillion. As of January 3 of this year, the debt was at $10.7 trillion. And as I mentioned earlier, that big green spike over there is for the $2 trillion in deficit spending they have already accrued this year. And we are hearing that once they pass the $410 billion, that it is going to be even higher. And we are also hearing that they are going to come back and ask for more TARP spending.

So when I talk with females and with female-owned small businesses in my district, the number one thing that comes up is the economy. And what does this do? Knowing that political freedom and economic freedom are linked, what does this do to future generations? From the women in my district, I have heard repeatedly, they understand that we cannot spend our way out of this recession. You can't spend your way to recovery. You can't spend your way to prosperity. You can't build prosperity on a foundation of debt. And so many of our small business owners understand that. And women every single day come to me and say, Marsha, it is time for people to address these economic issues and do it with wisdom, do it with some forethought, and be very careful that we are not passing on to future generations a debt that they are unable to handle.

I was out visiting with some women's groups a couple of weeks ago. A lady came up to me. She was carrying a young infant. And I noticed this because I have a 9-month-old grandson, Jack, and I have another grandchild, Chase, who will arrive in June. And the lady walked up to me with this child in her arms. And she said, ``Marsha, I want to tell you something.'' She said, ``it absolutely infuriates me when Congress spends money I haven't made yet. But now I have got this 6-month old grandbaby. And let me tell you something. It makes me so angry. I want to come to Washington and bang on the doors because it makes me so angry that you're spending money that she has not made yet. And she doesn't even know to be upset with Congress.'' She said, ``I know you're voting `no' on all these spending bills. Please do all you can to arrest the out-of-control spending.''

And I will yield back to the gentlelady from Illinois. I thank you for the time. And I thank you for the efforts to help work to preserve our economic freedom for future generations.

Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating Shelby County, Tennessee's Sheriff Mark Luttrell for being named the 2009 Sheriff of the Year presented by the National Sheriffs' Association.

First elected in 2002, Mark Luttrell has served Shelby County residents with strong leadership by placing the public's confidence back in the county's jail operations. Sherriff Luttrell has secured accreditation for both men's and women's jails, the medical unit, and the law enforcement division as well as many countless other achievements for which he is being recognized.

Luttrell continues to be an integral member in local and state efforts to fight street crime, including the successful Operation Safe Community. Sheriff Luttrell also serves on the Memphis/Shelby Crime Commission and Memphis Second Chance, an organization which aids first time offenders to transition back into society.

Sheriff Luttrell has set a high example of service, leadership, caring, and civic participation that all would do well to follow. Madam Speaker, I congratulate Sheriff Mark Luttrell on this well-deserved award, and ask my colleagues to join me in celebrating his accomplishments. We congratulate Sheriff Luttrell and his family on this wonderful occasion.

Mr. Speaker, you know, it is so interesting to go home on the weekends and visit with all of my constituents. This past weekend, some of them said, I feel like everything that I am hearing from the leadership in D.C. is focused on fear and envy to push their agenda.

The President's budget is just big government reinvented. Here it is, the era of enormous big government. It expands government spending past the traditional no more than 20 percent of GDP that we have always expected, and it is going into the stratosphere. Programs are piled on top of each other to give us what is now a $3.55 trillion budget that has come from this Democrat administration. And the deficits? $1 trillion as far as the eye can see. And this is on top of the stimulus, the omnibus, the ``Housing-us'' bills, that are just ripping through this Chamber at speeds that would make my NASCAR drivers dizzy.

You know, some of my constituents suspect that the leadership in this House actually is choosing to confuse the issues. They know you cannot spend your way to recovery.

Absolutely. I thank the gentleman from Missouri for yielding, and I appreciate the opportunity to participate in the discussion that is here because, as we have all been home over the weekend and have been working in our districts, meeting with constituents, the economy is the number one issue. I have talked to so many people who are using the words that they are appalled, that they are horrified with what they see happening here. They are very concerned with what they see taking place with the economic policies of the new administration.

Indeed, as a broker from one of our fine banks in Tennessee said to me yesterday, the stock market has voted on the Obama economic policies--on Pelosi, Reid and their economic policies--and they have obviously voted ``no'' because the stock market was over 9,000 before this administration took control, and now we see where it is today, which is at 6,700. It is of great concern to us.

We know our Nation is in a recession. We know that people are hurting. We know that they want to see something done, and most people fully realize that you cannot declare a war on prosperity and get yourself out of a recession.

You both have recognized, Ms. Foxx and the gentleman from Missouri, the quote from Henry Morgenthau and the importance of that, which is that it does not work, that this kind of spending does not work. I brought a chart along that I felt was important to the discussion that we are having.

As my colleagues know, the Democrats took control of this body in January '07, and we see where we were with the Federal deficit, the green line. The orange line is discretionary spending, and mandatory spending is in the blue. Now, we continued to hear from the leadership--from Speaker Pelosi, from Leader Reid and from the President--that they inherited this debt, that they inherited an annual deficit, but I think it's important to note that they voted ``yes'' on all of this. It has pushed our spending.

You can see what has happened with the spending in the past year alone. Stimulus I was $152 billion. You'll see where it comes in there in '08, the pre-TARP funds. That was from March to September of '08, $323 billion. Then there was TARP, the auto bailout--stimulus II--which was $787 billion. There was the omnibus, which was $410 billion. Now what we have seen happen with the spending is, by the end of '07, the Democrat-led House had moved our same year mandatory spending from $3 billion to $37 billion, and by the end of '08, they'd increased that number to $333 billion.

I would gladly yield to the gentlelady.

I yield my time to the gentleman.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

Indeed, you're exactly right. We had had job growth. We had had economic growth. It was basically unparalleled. The 2001 and 2003 tax reductions had worked. We had not seen this kind of growth since Ronald Reagan.

As the chart points out, you can look at where the Federal deficit was, which was at $8 trillion. You can look at where discretionary spending was placed and where our mandatory spending, this blue line, was placed.

Now, what we see as the mandatory spending alone is that they grew from $3 billion to $333 billion in a 2-year period of time. So you can see what is happening with our spending. Whether it is our discretionary or our mandatory spending, it is going through the roof, and of course that runs our Federal deficit and our national debt up.

This year alone, we're at over $2 trillion in a deficit, and our President has just proposed a $3.5 trillion budget.

So we know what is going to continue to happen to these lines. You can look at the CBO scoring--and, see, the CBO is a nonpartisan organization. You can look at what is happening in their scoring and see that we're going to have trillion-dollar deficits as far as we can see with the tight spending that we have brought forth.

Madam Speaker, the Democrats in Congress have a spending problem. House Democrats spent $410 billion to fund earmarks such as: $6.3 billion for AIDS prevention and research and $1.4 million for energy efficient street lighting in Detroit. The Democrat leadership of this body believes that we can spend our way out of a recession. They believe that a Washington bureaucrat can tell you what is best for you and your family.

But House Republicans know this isn't so. We know that Americans are the hardest working people in the world. We know that Americans are innovative, inspiring, and resilient. Americans are the life-force of the world economy. What the American people need are tax breaks and sales tax credits so they can continue to run their small businesses, create jobs, and rejuvenate our economy. What the American people do not need is more spending for liberal special interest groups. They need opportunities for innovation.

Madam Speaker, it is a privilege to rise today to honor and recognize the bravery of Bartlett Firefighter Lieutenant Jimmy McCaskey.

While vacationing in Florida Lt. McCaskey showed the highest form of human compassion and bravery when he risked his own life to save a father and son caught in the grasp of a powerful rip current generated by a hurricane while hundreds of beachgoers stood on the shore and watched. When Lt. McCaskey reached the two swimmers he lifted the father who was already blue in the face out of the water, onto his boogie board and kept him alert for 20 agonizing minutes while being relentlessly battered down upon from all directions by a surging sea until help finally arrived. Thankfully, this fisher of men narrowly escaped his own death.

In honor of this extraordinary act of selflessness, Lt. Jimmy McCaskey was awarded the Medal of Valor which is one of the highest honors for bravery a firefighter can receive. This award is administered by the 100 Club of Memphis and was presented to Lt. McCaskey due to his outstanding performance without regard for personal safety which should stand as an inspiration to all men and women across Tennessee and our Nation.

Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in both thanking and congratulating Lt. Jimmy McCaskey for his heroism; he is, indeed, a worthy recipient of this outstanding honor. And may God bless all of the Jimmy McCaskeys of America.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to celebrate the accomplishments of Tony Brown as he receives the 2009 Cecil Scaife Visionary Award at the Musicians Hall of Fame in Nashville.

Simply stated, Tony Brown is a legend in the Nashville music business. As the driving force behind MCA Nashville, Tony has been instrumental in the success of country music superstars from George Strait and Reba McEntire to Wynonna Judd, Trisha Yearwood, Vince Gill and Brooks & Dunn. Tony Brown's efforts have helped artists such as these create what is in essence a soundtrack for America.

But the overwhelming success of these artists is only part of Tony Brown's legacy. He is equally respected for his efforts to broaden the definition of what country music can be by signing and nurturing artists who defy easy categorization. He helped create space in the music business for people like Steve Earle, Lyle Lovett, Rodney Crowell, Kelly Willis and other artists who challenge the boundaries of country music.

Madam Speaker, I ask my colleagues to join me in congratulating Tony Brown as he receives this distinguished award. Please join me in congratulating Tony for his efforts to ensure that Nashville, Tennessee will always be one of the musical and cultural treasures of our country.

Mr. Speaker, yesterday Republicans were shut out of the Stimulus Conference, and this important legislation was decided in the same shady backroom your constituents voted to close in the last election. Americans are in a serious recession, and we need to act quickly to come to a bipartisan agreement. We don't need to rush this critical legislation through so that Members can jet out of town for their vacations.

We know that immediate and permanent tax breaks stimulate the economy. We know that spending does not. Yet, this backroom deal comes with a $789.5 billion price tag and 9 billion in new spending; tax cuts were sacrificed for new spending! This is no stimulus bill--this is a spending bill. It's time to cancel our vacations, roll up our sleeves and work to bring the real relief that Americans need. I am willing to stay and do real work. I challenge my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. Speaker, by definition, stimulus is to be immediate, focused, and targeted. This ``stimulus bill'' is no stimulus--it's spending.

The House version was packed with pork for projects like: $3 billion for the Prevention and Wellness Fund for immunizations, including $335 million for STD prevention programs; $800 million to make capital grants to Amtrak; and $600 million for GSA to replace a portion of federal motor vehicles with a plug-in.

The Senate Version added: $400 million for a Social Services Block Grant; $125 million for DC sewers; $500 million for NASA exploration activities; $300 million for FBI Construction; $2 billion for FutureGen; $100 million for National School lunch program equipment assistance; and $70 million for energy efficient visitor centers.

Americans know that not all spending is stimulus. If it can't produce a job THIS YEAR--let's not spend it!

Madam Speaker, tonight the President plans to address the American people in his first State of the Union. I can only hope that the President won't say what we're expecting: that the key to solvency is to lose a war and raise taxes. Congress just passed the Democrat's trillion dollar plus stimulus plan, with hundreds of billions of dollars in spending for special interest groups. Later this week we will consider the 2009 Appropriations Omnibus, which will include an 8% increase over last year's spending.

We will hear some good ideas that embrace the fiscally responsible bi-partisan change the president was elected on. I hope the Democrat leadership doesn't turn it into taxing and spending as usual. Madam Speaker, we all know that the way to a balanced budget is

through across-the-board spending cuts. The way to stimulate an economy is through tax breaks, not increases. I urge the President to start there.

Mr. Speaker, delaying the DTV transition will do nothing more than increase spending and will jeopardize our public safety infrastructure. It will require that we spend another $650 million, and it won't move a single person off the wait list for converter boxes.

In fact, the fund for converter box coupons is not depleted. Only half of the $1.5 billion in the program has been spent. With a simple legislative change, we could immediately resume sending coupons without delaying the transition process.

Worse still, delaying the transition will jeopardize the spectrum needed by public safety officials for interoperable communication systems--the same vital spectrum requested 5 years before 9/11 that has still not been made available 14 years later.

Let's take immediate steps to eliminate the current back-log of digital converter-box requests to ensure a successful DTV transition on February 17th, and finally pave the way for 21st century communications systems public safety professionals desperately need.