Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, many heroes from the great State of Colorado have answered our Nation's call to serve in the military. Today I rise in honor of one of these heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice and laid down his life for freedom: U.S. Army Corporal Brandon Michael Kirton.

Corporal Kirton of Centennial, Colorado, graduated from Englewood High School, and chose to serve in the U.S. Army. In the Army, he deployed with his unit in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and fought at the tip of the spear in Kandahar Province, Afghanistan. On May 18, 2011, his unit came under fire, and he gave his life fighting the Taliban.

Brandon is remembered not only for his heroics on the battlefield, but for the tremendous impact he had on his family, friends, and community. His absolute devotion to his family, his selfless attitude, and his ever-present sense of humor were all the trademark characteristics of a young man who made a lasting impression on all who knew him.

Corporal Brandon Michael Kirton personifies the honor and selflessness of service in the United States Army. My deepest sympathies go out to his family, his fellow soldiers, and all who knew him.

I thank the gentleman from New Jersey.

Somebody asked me, as an Iraq war veteran, if I had learned any lessons from that war, and I said, Yes, never do it again.

But I volunteered for Iraq because I believed that once we were involved in the fight that we had to reasonably finish that job. And my concern about Afghanistan is the fact that we are pretty far down this road. We know that the President's going to reduce the conventional footprint in July of this year. The President has already stated, as Commander in Chief, that he expects Afghan security forces to take operational control by 2014.

And let me tell you something that I think we're not thinking about tonight, and that is, as a United States Marine Corps civil affairs officer working in Iraq, part of my job was to convince Iraqis to cooperate and to side with us, knowing that if we left expeditiously before the situation stabilized that they would be killed. And my counterparts, doing the same job in Afghanistan that I did in Iraq, have that challenge of convincing the people, the civilian population, to cooperate and to side with us. And if, in fact, we do an expeditious withdrawal and revert to counterterrorism, there will be many lives lost unnecessarily due to our conduct here tonight.

I thank the gentleman from Ohio for yielding.

I also thank the gentleman from Colorado for raising this issue and particularly for questioning our military forward-basing in Europe. I think it's certainly time to do that. I'm not sure about the 30,000 number, but I question whether our NATO allies are dedicating the appropriate percentage, in terms of their budgets, towards maintaining defense and not becoming far too reliant upon the United States.

Where I differ in the amendment is with this arbitrary reduction of 10,000 a year for 5 years. The Secretary of Defense, I think, has thoughtfully put forward a plan that would, based on conditions, reduce the United States Army's end strength by 27,000 in FY 2015-2016; and the United States Marine Corps is somewhere between 15,000 and 20,000, in that same fiscal year, based on conditions. So I certainly oppose the amendment.

Mr. Speaker, today our national debt is $14,325,784,545,788.31.

On January 6, 2009, the start of the 111th Congress, the national debt was $10,638,425,746,293.80.

This means the national debt has increased by $3,687,358,799,494.50 since then.

This debt and its interest payments we are passing to our children and all future Americans.

Mr. Speaker, I am proud to stand before you today to reintroduce the National Guard Employment Protection Act.

I created this legislation in order to extend the same reemployment rights for all of our National Guard personnel, regardless of whether they are assigned to a homeland security mission or deployed overseas to Iraq or Afghanistan. Under current law, the members of the National Guard who are called up for active duty in support of homeland security missions inside the United States are not provided the same reemployment rights to their civilian occupations that other members of the National Guard and Reserve have when they are called to active duty for overseas military assignments.

There is no doubt that the soldiers and the airmen serving in the National Guard must have the same reemployment rights irrespective of where they are ordered to serve. The bill recognizes that those who are called up for homeland security missions can face the same hardships and challenges in trying to return to their civilian employment as someone who has been away from their civilian occupation due to an overseas military assignment.

With the passage of this law, National Guard members will no longer have to worry about being put into a position where they are forced to choose between retaining their civilian employment or serving our Nation in a critical homeland security mission.

I would like to thank Delegate Madeleine Bordallo, Representative Harper and Representative Roe for co-sponsoring again. I urge the passage of this legislation.

Mr. Speaker, today our national debt is $14,287,630,052,323.12.

On January 6, 2009, the start of the 111th Congress, the national debt was $10,638,425,746,293.80.

This means the national debt has increased by $3,649,204,306,029.30 since then.

This debt and its interest payments we are passing to our children and all future Americans.

Mr. Speaker, today our national debt is $14,267,760,539,191.89.

On January 6, 2009, the start of the 111th Congress, the national debt was $10,638,425,746,293.80.

This means the national debt has increased by $3,629,334,792,898.00 since then.

This debt and its interest payments we are passing to our children and all future Americans.

Mr. Speaker, today our national debt is $14,259,761,986,879.66.

On January 6th, 2009, the start of the 111th Congress, the national debt was $10,638,425,746,293.80.

This means the national debt has increased by $3,625,819,780,017.70 since then.

This debt and its interest payments we are passing to our children and all future Americans.

Mr. Speaker, today our national debt is $14,259,761,986,879.66.

On January 6th, 2009, the start of the 111th Congress, the national debt was $10,638,425,746,293.80.

This means the national debt has increased by $3,621,336,240,585.80 since then.

This debt and its interest payments we are passing to our children and all future Americans.

Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing a bipartisan bill to avert a U.S. rare earth supply crisis by restoring our nation's production of rare earth metals. This bill, the Rare Earths Supply-Chain Technology and Resources Transformation Act of 2011 (RESTART Act), would achieve this by reestablishing a domestic rare earth industry in the United States.

Currently, the world is nearly 100 percent reliant on Chinese exports for these critical materials and China's trade policies of restricting rare earth exports pose a serious threat to both the economic and national security of the United States. China supplies about 95 percent of the world's rare earth metals, used in everything from wind turbines, electric car batteries, television sets, smart phones, and advanced weapons systems. Chinese officials have announced a decision to cut exports of rare earth metals by 35 percent in the first half of 2011. The Chinese government-ordered reduction in rare earth metals exports demonstrates the urgent need for us to act to correct our rare earth supply chain vulnerability.

I became alarmed early in 2009 when I learned that many U.S. defense contractors rely heavily on Chinese exports of rare earth metals to make everything from night vision goggles, tanks, and fighter aircraft, to precision guided munitions. This reliance on China poses a key vulnerability.

My comprehensive, bipartisan legislation will put in place mechanisms to assist U.S. companies with meeting their needs for rare earth metals and ensure our national security needs are met in the near term.

The legislation does not waive environmental laws, but it directs appropriate federal agencies to expedite the permitting process in order to increase the exploration and development of domestic rare earth elements, and the legislation establishes a multi-agency Task Force to carry out this process. The legislation makes federally-backed loans available to start rare earth production only when private capital is not available. The bill sets-up a Defense Logistics Agency rare earth domestic inventory to generate a domestic market and facilitate the domestic sourcing of rare earth alloys and magnets. It establishes a rare earth program at the U.S. Geological Survey, and it require the various cabinet Secretaries appoint Executive Agents for rare earths.

Our Nation must act to protect our security interests with regard to rare earth elements. China is neither an ally of the United States nor is it a reliable trade partner when it comes to these strategic metals.

My legislation has the support of the Coalition for a Prosperous America, CPA, the United States Magnet Materials Association, USMMA, and their members who are most affected by the disruption in the rare earth metals market.

Mr. Speaker, today our national debt is $14,262,144,462,897.94.

On January 6, 2009, the start of the 111th Congress, the national debt was $10,638,425,746,293.80.

This means the national debt has increased by $3,623,718,716,604.10 since then.

This debt and its interest payments we are passing to our children and all future Americans.

Mr. Chair, on rollcall No. 237 I inadvertently voted ``yea'' when I intended to vote ``nay.''

Amendment No. 9 Offered by Mr. Markey

Mr. Speaker, today our national debt is $14,251,174,516,308.48.

On January 6, 2009, the start of the 111th Congress, the national debt was $10,638,425,746,293.80.

This means the national debt has increased by $3,605,505,817,922.70 since then.

This debt and its interest payments we are passing to our children and all future Americans.

Mr. Speaker, today our national debt is $14,251,174,516,308.48.

On January 6, 2009, the start of the 111th Congress, the national debt was $10,638,425,746,293.80.

This means the national debt has increased by $3,612,748,770,014.60 since then.

This debt and its interest payments we are passing to our children and all future Americans.

Mr. Speaker, there are many heroes from Colorado who have fought and continue to fight the global war on terror. Today, I pay tribute to one hero in particular, Marine Lance Corporal Christopher Steele Meis.

Lance Corporal Meis of Bennett, Colorado, enlisted in the Marine Corps following his graduation from Bennett High School. He was deployed in January 2011 to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom and served with his brothers of Second Battalion, Eighth Marines, at the tip of the spear in Helmand province. On March 17, his unit came under fire and he gave his life fighting the Taliban.

Steele comes from a family with a long tradition of military service to our Nation. He was proud to be an American and from an early age he wanted to serve his country as a Marine. He chose to become a Marine because, in his words, ``they are the best.'' He had the reputation of a stand-up guy who loved his family and his country. Like a good Marine, he was also known to be the man up front, the man leading the way.

Lance Corporal Christopher Steele Meis is a shining example of the United States Marine Corps' service and sacrifice. As a Marine Corps combat veteran, my deepest sympathies go out to his family, his fellow Marines, and to all who knew him.

I thank the gentlewoman from Florida, and I thank the gentleman from Ohio for bringing this resolution forward, and I reluctantly rise in opposition to it.

I volunteered to serve in Iraq not because I believed that invading, pacifying, and administering the country was the right course of action, but I believed that once we had made the commitment that we had to follow it through and bring it to a reasonable and just conclusion.

In Afghanistan, I think that what this Nation first did was great: That we were attacked on 9/11. The Taliban controlled much of the country and gave safe harbor to al Qaeda, and we gave air, logistical, and advisory support to the anti-Taliban forces in the country and they pushed the Taliban out.

We made a wrong turn after that, by forcing the victors on the ground aside instead of using our leverage to have them reach out to the Pashtun elements of the country, and we superimposed a political process on them that doesn't fit the political culture of the country, a government that is mired in corruption and has little capacity to govern outside of Kabul. I believe it is wrong to use conventional forces against an irregular force that make our military vulnerable to asymmetric capability. But we have security interests in Afghanistan that we must accept.

We need to make sure that the Taliban doesn't take over the country where it becomes a permissive environment, where they can use that to destabilize Afghanistan, to assist the Taliban on the other side of the Durand Line. We need some base of operations in Afghanistan to be able to strike al Qaeda targets in the federally administered tribal areas of Afghanistan. I believe that we can do it with a lighter footprint. I think we ought to be focused on supporting factions within this region that share our strategic interests.

I thank the gentlewoman from Florida.

We have strategic interests in Afghanistan. It would be wrong, it would be irresponsible at this time to expeditiously withdraw all of our forces from Afghanistan, again, without recognizing our strategic interests there.

Although I differ on the strategy that we are using right now, I recognize the security interests of the United States that are vital for us to maintain not only peace and stability in the region but also at home.