Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Michal Bodzianowski of Highlands Ranch, Colorado. Michal, a sixth grader at STEM High and Academy, is an honorable winner of the National Center for Earth and Space Science Education's Student Spaceflight Experiments Program.

Michal's project will explore the creation of beer in microgravity. The project was one of eleven student proposals that were selected to be aboard SpaceX-3 that launched from Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in December of 2013.

His innovative project is currently being executed at the International Space Station by astronauts who are closely following the direction of the young scientist himself. Simultaneously, Michal is conducting the same experiment on the ground to see what differences may arise. We are rooting for the success of Michal's experiment and are certain that it will have pivotal, lasting effects on the evolution of space research.

Michal serves as role model to young scientists. His early dedication and determination to study science and technology is a testament to the American dream and I am proud to represent him in Congress. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to recognize Michal Bodzianowski for his achievement of winning the ``Student Spaceflight Experiments Program'' and successfully launching his experiment into space.

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, it is $17,545,861,055,228.61. We've added $6,918,984,006,315.53 to our debt in 5 years. This is over $6.9 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, it is $17,535,731,914,061.53. We've added $6,908,854,865,148.45 to our debt in 5 years. This is over $6.9 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, it is $17,529,945,473,040.66. We've added $6,903,068,424,127.58 to our debt in 5 years. This is over $6.9 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, it is $17,532,488,016,268.40. We've added $6,905,610,967,355.40 to our debt in 5 years. This is over $6.9 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, it is $17,585,699,982,065.80. We've added $6,958,822,933,152.72 to our debt in 5 years. This is over $6.9 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment seeks to take $15.7 million out of the Air Force research, development, test and evaluation account, equal to the amount the Air Force has budgeted for sixth- generation fighter development, and places those funds into the spending reduction account for debt relief.

Mr. Chairman, this amendment is not about capabilities; it is quite simply about priorities. I could understand the need for sixth- generation fighter development funding had the administration not attempted to scrap our military's only dedicated close air support platform, the A-10, citing budgetary concerns.

I could understand the need for sixth-generation fighter development funding had the administration not attempted to scrap the U-2, an aging but capable aircraft that continues to provide the warfighter with actionable intelligence in some of the world's most dangerous areas, citing budgetary concerns.

I could understand the need for sixth-generation fighter development funding had the administration not capped America's premier air dominance fighter, the fifth-generation F-22 Raptor, at 187 aircraft, citing, once again, budgetary concerns.

And I could understand the need for sixth-generation fighter development funding if the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, a fifth- generation program I do support, was not admittedly over budget and behind schedule.

Mr. Chairman, our Nation is over $17 trillion in debt and is running a budget deficit of over half a billion dollars. As a result, it has become almost a cliche to quote Admiral Mullen's warning of our national debt as America's greatest threat. That is why I cannot support millions of dollars in funding for the Department of Defense to begin developing the follow-on to the F-35 when the F-35 itself is years away from being operational.

Mr. Chairman, I urge my fellow Members to support this commonsense amendment. By supporting my amendment you will be sending a message to the Department of Defense to get its current programs under control and its fiscal house in order before asking the American taxpayer to foot the bill for any future programs.

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

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, it is $17,536,123,426,853.10. We've added $6,909,246,377,940.02 to our debt in 5 years. This is over $6.9 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Offered By: Mr. Coffman

Amendment No. 5: Page 31, line 6, after the dollar amount,

insert ``(reduced by $15,722,000)''.

Page 141, line 4, after the dollar amount, insert

``(increased by $15,722,000)''.

Offered By: Mr. Coffman

Amendment No. 6: Page 27, line 10, after the dollar amount,

insert ``(increased by $139,260,000)''.

Page 31, line 18, after the dollar amount, insert

``(reduced by $139,260,000)''.

Page 31, line 20, after the dollar amount, insert

``(reduced by $139,260,000)''.

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, it is $17,555,165,805,212.20. We've added $6,928,288,756,299.20 to our debt in 5 years. This is over $6.9 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, it is $17,490,047,622,577.60. We've added $6,863,170,573,664.60 to our debt in 5 years. This is over $6.8 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, it is $17,494,957,564,945.40. We've added $6,868,080,516,032.40 to our debt in 5 years. This is over $6.8 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08.

Today, it is $17,490,453,119,908.90. We've added $6,863,576,070,995.90 to our debt in 5 years. This is over $6.8 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. Speaker, as a gulf war and Iraq war veteran, I am grateful for the leadership of the gentleman from Florida, Chairman Miller, on the House Committee on Veterans' Affairs and for his support of H.R. 4261.

H.R. 4261, the Gulf War Health Research Reform Act of 2014, which I sponsored along with Ranking Member Kirkpatrick and full committee Ranking Member Michaud, restores the independence of the Research Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses to perform the role it has historically played, as intended by Congress, to improve the lives of ill gulf war veterans.

This bill is necessary because some career VA staff have been trying to revive the discredited 1990s fiction that nothing special happened to gulf war veterans' health and that the problems experienced by gulf war veterans are just ``what happens after every war'' due to psychological stress factors.

Because there is no scientific evidence for this position, VA staffers have resorted to manipulating research studies and reports to try and revive this discredited theory. A major new VA gulf war veteran survey, for example, included the questions necessary to identify PTSD but not Gulf War illness.

Most shockingly, VA has even manipulated new research of the Institute of Medicine by limiting the terms of its contracts. VA transformed the Institute of Medicine gulf war treatments study ordered by Congress into a report based largely on psychotherapies. The Research Advisory Committee objected strongly to these actions, which threatened to mislead treatment research just as science is finally turning the corner. VA retaliated by eliminating the independence of the committee, changing its charter to remove its authority to review the effectiveness of government research programs, and replacing the members serving on the committee. The effect of these changes can already be seen.

The section of the new 2014 Research Advisory Committee report that detailed VA's manipulations of research had to be removed because the committee's authority to review the effectiveness of VA's research programs had been eliminated.

The independent voice, so critical to honest research, will be all but replaced by September with those who seem to bend to VA's will.

H.R. 4261 will restore the authority of the committee and provide that its membership, instead of being appointed entirely by VA, will consist of nine members appointed by the chairs and ranking members of the House Veterans' Affairs Committee, the Senate Veterans' Affairs Committee, and three members chosen by VA. This arrangement follows the longstanding model of the bipartisan Advisory Committee on Student Financial Assistance at the Department of Education.

Current law provides that the Research Advisory Committee membership may include veterans, representatives of veterans, and the general public. While there are those who seek to limit veteran members to ill veterans, excluding most veterans service organization representatives and others, the Research Advisory Committee has been well-served by having both ill and other veterans serve on the committee.

It is important to remember that the unwillingness of the VA to honestly address this illness is the reason Congress created the Research Advisory Committee in the first place. The 1997 congressional report that led to that legislation was entitled, ``Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses: VA, DOD Continue to Resist Strong Evidence Linking Toxic Causes to Chronic Health Effects.''

Science has made great progress since then, thanks in no small measure to the work of the Research Advisory Committee, as well as to the effective Gulf War Illness Research Program that Congress created at the Congressionally Directed Medical Research Programs. But this progress is all at risk if VA is able to again mislead science down blind alleys, directing scarce research dollars at the wrong target, as so often happened in the 1990s and 2000s.

I thank the chairman.

It is also important to ask why the VA has pursued this course. Last month, we learned the answer. On April 22, 2014, Military Times reported that the VA Under Secretary for Benefits, Allison Hickey, objected even to using the term ``Gulf War illness'' because it ``might imply a casual link between service in the gulf and poor health which could necessitate . . . disability compensation for veterans who served in the gulf.''

Even if this policy was morally justifiable and saving money was the only goal, it is wrong. It will cost the Federal Government far less in the long run to face this problem honestly and pursue effective treatments, rather than to deny benefits and provide misleading research.

We have strong support for this legislation from the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Veterans, or AMVETS, and the Vietnam Veterans of America.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill. Without an independent Research Advisory Committee, the slow but steady progress toward identifying treatments for Gulf War illness will most surely end.