Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I would like to request the House's attention today to pay recognition to the people of the city of Lincoln in Talladega County, who are celebrating their city's 100th anniversary this year.

Lincoln, Alabama, was named after the famous American Revolutionary War figure General Benjamin Lincoln. Lincoln, who was known as the ``Defender of Charleston'' for his courage in battle, rose to highest ranks of the Continental Army. He had the honor from General George Washington of accepting the British surrender at the Battle of Yorktown, which ended the War of Independence.

During the War of 1812, Andrew Jackson with a force numbering more than 2,500 men camped near Lincoln. This was one of the first steps in the further development of this region, with early settlers coming from Virginia, the Carolinas and Georgia.

In 1911, Lincoln was incorporated and chosen as the location for the Talladega County High school. The first mayor of this proud city was W.D. Henderson.

All of us across Talladega County and East Alabama are deeply proud of this important occasion for the proud citizens of Lincoln. We look forward to seeing the city continue to thrive and grow, and we congratulate local citizens and Mayor Lew Watson on their 100th anniversary.

Madam Speaker, I would like to request the House's attention today to pay recognition to Ms. Zula Battle who is celebrating her 108th birthday on March 22. The Wadley Town Council in Randolph County has helped highlight this special occasion by declaring March 22 as Zula Battle Day. According to Mayor Jim Dabbs, Ms. Battle has had more birthdays than the town itself.

On March 19, Ms. Battle is planning to celebrate her birthday at the home of Tom Radney. Many local residents close to Ms. Battle are planning to be in attendance, and the invitation is open to everyone in town.

Ms. Battle's 108th birthday is such a remarkable event that deserves all the praise given. I wish Ms. Battle a very happy birthday, and a wonderful Zula Battle day.

Madam Speaker, I would like to request the House's attention today to recognize the life of a proud American hero, Specialist Lakeshia M. Bailey.

Specialist Bailey, of Columbus, Georgia, died in Iraq on March 8, 2010, in service to our nation. She is survived by her husband and parents.

Like all those who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in this conflict, words cannot express the sense of sadness we have for her family, and the gratitude our country feels for her service. Specialist Bailey died serving the United States and the entire cause of liberty, on a mission to bring stability to a troubled region and liberty to a formerly oppressed people. She was a true patriot for serving our nation, and she will be missed.

We will forever hold her closely in our hearts, and remember her sacrifice and that of her family as a remembrance of her bravery and willingness to serve. Thank you, Madam Speaker, for the House's remembrance on this mournful day.

Madam Speaker, I rise today to respond to what I think that the leadership is going to bring later this week. I understand that they are going to bring a vote to the floor that the President and our Speaker believe is a socialist plan--or I know it is a socialist plan for the government takeover of health care. And the Speaker wants her members to have the courage to pass this what she believes is a prescription for health care reform in America.

What it is is a prescription for disaster in our country, and it is also a prescription for disaster for the majority party. That is what I would like to address the balance of my remarks to. The majority party is being asked to vote for something that their districts and their constituents don't want. The President yesterday in a speech said that what he was hoping the Members would do is show courage for a change.

Well, I agree with the President. I hope that the Democrat Members do show courage later this week. Show courage to not be a lapdog for the leadership and the President, and show the courage to be a bulldog for their districts and their constituents who adamantly oppose this socialist takeover of government health care for our country.

Madam Speaker, I would like to request the House's attention today to pay recognition to a constituent and friend of mine, Mr. P.K. Brooks.

Mr. Brooks is 78 years old and has been in business in my community of Saks for 56 years. During that time he has been a pillar of the community and a role model for generations of young people whose lives he has touched. He remains one of the most respected leaders in the area.

He grew up in Wedowee, Alabama, and played basketball for Randolph County High School. He later joined the Navy during the Korean War.

Mr. Brooks is a man of integrity and full of compassion for the folks around him. He has been a member of Saks Baptist Church for 53 years. Over the years, he has belonged to numerous organizations including Civitan, VFW and Gideon's.

On March 28th, an appreciation function will be held in the afternoon at Saks Civitan Club.

All of us across Calhoun County are pleased to recognize such an outstanding individual. I hope we can all look to Mr. Brooks as an example of how to live and I am proud to call him my friend.

Many of you may remember in the 1992 campaign for the Presidency, James Carville made famous the phrase ``It's the economy, stupid,'' because they posted that sign on the campaign war room to remind the candidate and the staff that that was the number one issue the American people wanted focused on.

Well, you know, Mr. Carville ought to pull that signage back out and take it over to the White House and maybe take one down the hallway here to the Speaker's suite to remind the majority and the leadership that that is what the American people want us focused on. It is not a government takeover of health care; they want us to focus on the economy and creating jobs.

I don't know why that seems to be something that they don't want to do. The President said at the beginning of the year that he was going to pivot from health care and focus ``like a laser'' on jobs and the economy. And here we are now demanding that we put our full attention on the government takeover of health care by the end of next week.

You just want to remind them: It's the economy, stupid. Let's focus on it.

Madam Speaker, I would like to request the House's attention today to pay recognition to the congregation of Marble City Baptist Church, which celebrated their 100th anniversary this year.

Marble City Baptist Church, formerly the Gantt's Quarry Baptist Church, like so many other congregations across East Alabama, has been a staple in the community since it came into existence. In 1968, the church received the new name we know today. Pastor Dr. Michael Trull plays a substantial role in helping the church lead its ministry.

On February 13, Marble City Baptist Church held a reunion from the day into that night. This gathering brought close to 300 people back to the church. The following Sunday, a congregation close to 400 people came together for the 100-year anniversary service.

All of us across Talladega County and East Alabama are deeply proud of this congregation at this important milestone. We congratulate them on their 100th anniversary and wish them all the best in their next 100 years of ministry in the Sylacauga community.

Madam Speaker, I would like to request the House's attention today to pay recognition to the outstanding young athletes of Edward Bell High School in Camp Hill, Alabama, for winning the 1A Basketball State Championship. This is the first State Championship in school history for the Edward Bell Bears, and it was well deserved.

On February 25, the Bears held on to their lead over J.F. Shields for a thrilling 66-65 win. Coach Mitch Joiner and Assistant Coach Brownie Caldwell taught their fourth ranked Bears how to work together and strive under pressure. Both skills were put to the test throughout this season--and were proven successful in this final win.

All of us across Tallapoosa County and East Alabama are deeply proud of these young people for Edward Bell High School's first championship win. We congratulate them on this achievement.

Thank you, Madam Speaker.

I rise today to talk about what I think is the most important issue in America, and that is jobs, specifically something that this administration can do quickly to help alleviate our jobs problem. Many people in this country recognize that there has been a debate in Congress for the last few years about how to replace our aging tanker fleet in the Air Force. We have tankers that are over 50 years old and need to be replaced now. We have had a competition for the contract to replace those tankers ongoing for years that has been nothing but bureaucratic.

What I would like to urge the President to do is instruct his Defense Department to consider something that our late colleague Mr. Murtha supported, and that was dual procurement of these tankers. We can take the two major prime contractors, Boeing and Northrop Grumman, and allow both of them to proceed with tanker production to do a couple things: One, to immediately have an injection of jobs into the country, a bigger injection than we would have had by sole source procurement, but also we would more rapidly then get the fleet of tankers replaced.

Under the current construct, it would take 40 years. I don't think anybody wants the warfighter to be having to fly 80- and 90-year-old tankers. I understand that the Air Force would need its procurement budget plussed up because they currently are expecting only to be able to afford 15 tankers per year. I think the President could take some of the stimulus funds, which were ostensibly to be used for job creation, move that to the Air Force's budget so that we could, instead of having 15 per year, have 24 per year, which would allow each company to produce 12 tankers per year.

This would create an immediate influx of new jobs not just in the tanker procurement, but also in the surrounding supplier industries and in the communities. This would be an economic engine in the various States that this production would take place. It would be good for the warfighter, good for our economy, good for American jobs. The President ought to do it.

Mr. President, it is about jobs. I urge you to focus on this issue.

Where are the jobs? That's what the folks in East Alabama and around the country want to know.

A year ago, when the President came in, we thought he was going to do something about it. Unfortunately, his idea of remedying the problem was passing the stimulus bill, which I like to think of as the Obama slush fund/political slush fund because that's what it really is. If it, in fact, had been a stimulus bill, it would have been spent in the first year, at a minimum, instead of over 5 years. Instead, he didn't.

Last month, I was encouraged when the President said he was going to focus like a laser on jobs this year. To that end, he has called for a health care summit this week. The President has got to get off his drive to push universal, government-run health insurance on the American people, and has to start talking about and working on the things that we really care about, one of which is getting our people back to work.

What the President needs to do is to drop his push for government-run health care and to start working with his Treasury Department to get them and our banks lending again. Start working with our small business people to find out what kind of relief they need to start hiring again. It's about jobs, Mr. President.

Madam Speaker, in accordance with the Republican Conference standards regarding Member initiatives, I am submitting the following information for publication in the Congressional Record regarding projects received as part of the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010.

Requesting Member: Congressman Mike Rogers (Alabama)

Bill Number: H.R. 3326, Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010 Account: RDT&E, Army.

Legal Name of Receiving Entity: Auburn University/Frontier Technology, Inc.

Address of Receiving Entity: 102 Samford Hall, Auburn, AL 36849/1400 Commerce Blvd., #27, Anniston, AL 36207

Description of Request: Provide $2,800,000 for the Enhanced Military Vehicle Maintenance System Demonstration Project. Auburn University and partner Frontier Technology, Inc. will partner and use these funding will go towards system analysis, development, integration, validation and training, as well as toward field installation, optimization and support. Additionally, these efforts should create new high tech jobs, and will continue to demonstrate that Auburn University is a premier research and development university. The Enhanced Military Vehicle Maintenance System identities difficult to detect failure modes that must be serviced while the vehicle is undergoing maintenance. It models vehicle conditions to ensure that the vehicle is restored to an optimum state of operation prior to return to service. This technology can be modified for various military vehicles to detect problems not typically reported using threshold or trend systems. It detects problems before they happen, preventing breakdowns in battlefield environments. The system successfully verifies that vehicles repaired at the Depot have been restored to an optimum state of operation prior to redeployment. The system provides the cutting edge, cost effective technology that helps ensure more rapid and reliable deployment of critical military vehicles during this period when our equipment is under extreme and extended use. Auburn and FTI are now starting to implement the system at Anniston.

Requesting Member: Congressman Mike Rogers (Alabama)

Bill Number: H.R. 3326, Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010 Account: OM, Army

Legal Name of Receiving Entity: Intergraph Corporation

Address of Receiving Entity: 170 Graphics Drive, Madison, AL 35758

Description of Request: Provide $4,000,000 for the Fort Benning National Incident Management System (NIMS)--Compliant Installation Operations Center. Funding will be used to establish a NIMS-compliant installation operations center, hardware, software, services and training at Fort Benning, Georgia. This funding will go towards meeting the implementation of a NIMS-compliant installation operations center that will directly support Homeland Security Presidential Directive (HSPD)-5 by providing interoperability and cross-jurisdiction capabilities among local and multi-state response agencies. The request will allow Fort Benning to create a NIMS-compliant state-of-the-art operations center. This system will provide Fort Benning with the critically needed capability to track and protect new incidents and existing activities. The final solution will integrate first responder force protection and the fire fighting common operational picture into one comprehensive command and control/decision support capability that will provide visibility to the commander to gain status and direct response, analyze the current anti-terrorism and force protection mission, and allow for appropriate reporting to other operations centers throughout the country.

Requesting Member: Congressman Mike Rogers (Alabama)

Bill Number: H.R. 3326, Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010 Account: RDT&E, Army

Legal Name of Receiving Entity: John C. Calhoun Community College

Address of Receiving Entity: P.O. Box 2216, Decatur, Alabama 35609

Description of Request: Provide $3,360,000 for the ART-SAM (Adaptive Robotics Technology for Space, Air and Missiles). Funding will be used to establish a national robotics Research and Development center at the Robotics Technology Park, located at Calhoun Community College, to develop robotics capability for space, air, and missile defense missions for a variety of the U.S. Army Space and Missile Defense Command (SMDC) projects, programs, and core mission needs. This funding will go towards implementation of the infrastructure and development of robotic hardware and software. This includes evaluating initial concepts for implementation, establishing operational capability, and demonstrating initial operational capability. This is the first year funding will be needed; this project will be accomplished over a three year funding cycle. Alabama's 3rd District will be impacted indirectly, and the opportunities for job creation and workforce development across the state are considerable. Additionally, the strong military-oriented mission for ART-SAM should apply directly to military operations and associated personnel in District 3. The implications of the ART-SAM vision will be readily apparent to any District 3 constituent already involved in battlefield simulation and robotics.

Requesting Member: Congressman Mike Rogers (Alabama)

Bill Number: H.R. 3326, Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010 Account: RDT&E, Army

Legal Name of Receiving Entity: QinetiQ North America--Systems Engineering Group

Address of Receiving Entity: 890 Explorer Blvd., Huntsville, AL 35806

Description of Request: Provide $3,360,000 for Scenario Generation for Integrated Air and Missile Defense Evaluation. This funding will be used for the Army Aviation and Missile Research Development and Engineering Center, Software Engineering Directorate (SED) for development of ground test scenarios required to execute the Integrated Air and Missile Defense (IAMD) Battle Command System Milestone B Test and Evaluation Master Plan (TEMP). Funding for this scenario development effort addresses a portion of a documented AMD UFR associated with System of Systems development and acquisition funding profile. Investment in this scenario development during FY10 will maintain the critical milestone schedule, including Milestone C and Initial Operational Capability (IOC).

Requesting Member: Congressman Mike Rogers (Alabama)

Bill Number: H.R. 3326, Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2010 Account: RDT&E, Army

Legal Name of Receiving Entity: PeopleTec, Inc.

Address of Receiving Entity: 4901-D Corporate Drive, Huntsville, AL 35806

Description of Request: Provide $3,120,001 for the Enhanced Rapid Tactical Integration for Fielding of Systems (ERTIFS). Funding will leverage and evolve ERTIFS developed Aviation and Missile interoperability technologies and systems. Funding will be used for engineering and development of the Army Battle Command System--Brigade Architecture (ABCS-BA), procurement, integration and testing of the ABCS-BA hardware, and ABCS-BA project to support four additional types of required interoperability Tests: 1) Individual System, 2) System of Systems (e.g., Software Blocking), 3) Backwards Compatibility-- Interoperability and 4) Regression Testing.

Madam Speaker, I would like to request the House's attention today to pay recognition to Miss Dakota Missildine who became the 45th Miss Rodeo on January 17, 2010.

Dakota is the 22-year-old daughter of Pam and Todd Missildine and has two younger brothers, Dallas and Austin. Dakota was raised on a horse farm in Grady, Alabama, and is no newcomer to the western way of life. She started competing at a young age and over the years moved up through the ranks, all while specializing in her favorite event, breakaway roping.

Dakota's platform is the Golden Heart, encouraging all to open their hearts and live by the Golden Rule. Dakota is accepting of everyone, and is looking forward to spreading that message to everyone while also creating more support for the rodeo.

On January 17th in Oklahoma City Dakota said, ``I am honored to have this opportunity to represent cowboys and cowgirls across the United States and Canada and be their voice to the public.''

All of us across Talladega County and East Alabama are deeply proud of Dakota Missildine and her outstanding accomplishments at such a young age. We are looking forward to see what good things will come from Miss Rodeo in 2010.

Madam Speaker, I would like to request the House's attention today to pay recognition to Mr. Cecil Moore, a constituent of mine who will be turning 90 on February 13th this year. Mr. Moore is a World War II Veteran and American hero and deserves our greatest praise.

He was so determined to serve our Nation, he hitch-hiked all the way from Sylacauga, Alabama, to Atlanta, Georgia, to enlist in the Marines in 1939. During World War II, he served most of his time in the Pacific and participated in the Marshall Islands campaign.

He eventually retired in 1965 at the rank of Colonel.

On February 13th, this hometown war hero will be celebrating his 90th birthday. All of us across Talladega County and East Alabama are deeply honored to be a part of celebrating this extraordinary veteran's 90th birthday celebration. Our best wishes and happy birthday to Mr. Cecil Moore.

Madam Speaker, I would like to request the House's attention today to pay recognition to the Alexander City Chamber of Commerce's 100 years of service to the business community. Governor Bob Riley will be a special guest and keynote speaker at the ceremony honoring the occasion.

On February 19th, the Chamber will host their annual meeting to give recognition to incoming Board of Directors as well as those retiring this year. As always, during this annual meeting they also plan to pay tribute to the Business Person of the Year, the ``Community Spirit'' award recipient, Firefighter of the Year, Police Officer of the Year, Teacher of the Year and Chamber Ambassador of the Year.

This event will be held at the Betty Carol Graham Technology Center on the campus of Central Alabama Community College in Alexander City.

All of us across Tallapoosa County and East Alabama are deeply proud of the successes of organizations like the Alexander City Chamber, and look forward to the next 100 years of service from this important community organization and so many others like it.

Madam Speaker, I would like to request the House's attention today to pay recognition to the special life of Mary Coleman Gilmer of Montgomery, Alabama.

Mrs. Gilmer was born on January 24, 1905 in Conecuh County, Alabama. In 1926, Mrs. Gilmer married Gaddie Gilmer, and in the 1940's she graduated from Alabama State Teacher's College High School Class.

Mrs. Gilmer and her husband Gaddie adopted two daughters, Cubie Rae Chambliss and Jacqueline Lorraine Larry from two of her nieces. Both daughters graduated from Alabama State University. Mrs. Gilmer now has five grandchildren.

Mrs. Gilmer has spent her life actively working in the church and has been the Minister of music at several churches in Alabama. She also worked for the Atlanta Life Insurance Company for many years.

Today her friends and family will celebrate her birthday in Montgomery. I would like to join her family and friends in wishing Mrs. Mary Coleman Gilmer a very Happy 105th Birthday.