Floor Statements

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6612) to redesignate the Dryden Flight Research Center as the Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center and the Western Aeronautical Test Range as the Hugh L. Dryden Aeronautical Test Range.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members shall have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 6612, the bill now under consideration.

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

I want to begin by thanking, as I should, the Members for their bipartisan support of the legislation. H.R. 6612 would redesignate the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's Dryden Flight Research Center, which is co-located with the Edwards Air Force Base in the Antelope Valley of California, as the Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center. The bill would also rename the Western Aeronautical Test Range as the Hugh L. Dryden Aeronautical Test Range. This is very appropriate; they were very dear friends.

Neil Armstrong needs no introduction. Actually, this bill was introduced by his congressman, Kevin McCarthy, the congressman where the redesignation will take place. The gentleman from California is the majority whip, but Neil Armstrong absolutely needs no introduction. He's an iconic American hero, and one of the most humble men I've ever met. He was quiet, thoughtful, and deliberate, choosing his words carefully, whether it was testifying before a congressional committee, giving a speech, or sharing a quiet movement with a friend. He did not exaggerate, and always, always gave recognition to the teams of engineers, technicians, and scientists at NASA and in industry when speaking

about the success of the Apollo 11 mission. He refused to take personal credit for his accomplishments.

Naming the flight center after Neil is very appropriate. After graduating from college, Neil joined NASA's predecessor agency, the National Advisory Council on Aeronautics, and soon found himself at NACA's High Speed Flight Station located at Edwards, which in time would become the Dryden Flight Research Center. He spent 7 years there flying a variety of new design and high-performance aircraft, including seven flights at the controls of the X-15.

Neil was a good friend, and is sorely missed by me and by all of the people he touched during his long and active life. He is survived by his wife, Carol; his two sons, Mark and Rick; a stepson and a stepdaughter; 10 grandchildren; and a brother and sister.

The bill also names the Western Aeronautical Test Range after Dr. Hugh L. Dryden. He held the position of director of the National Advisory Council on Aeronautics from 1947 until it was renamed NASA in 1958, and was deputy director of NASA until his death in 1965.

Dr. Dryden did pioneering research on airfoils near the speed of sound and the problems of airflow and turbulence. His work greatly contributed to the designs of wings for aircraft, including the P-51 Mustang and other World War II aircraft.

Before I close, I want to tell something that was rather interesting. President Clinton, I think it was on the 25th anniversary, invited Neil to speak, knowing that he probably wouldn't speak because he had indicated that he would not. But he left an empty chair for him on the stage. And as we got through the ceremony, Neil walked in. And the President, good natured, said, Well, I said you wouldn't speak, but here's the microphone.

Neil took the microphone and said, The parrot is the only bird that can fly and speak, and I can do the same.

Then he sat down, and it brought the house down.

I urge Members to support this bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the very capable majority whip, the gentleman from California (Mr. McCarthy).

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Lamar Smith, who, on the 3rd day of January will be the chairman of Science, Space, and Technology for many, many years.

No, we do not have additional speakers.

Madam Speaker, before I close, I'd just like to thank Jay Pierson, who plans to retire at the end of this year, for his many, many years of service to this House. He's been very helpful to me, to my staff, and to other staffs. He'll be sorely missed.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 6633, a bill to designate the United States courthouse located at 101 East Pecan Street in Sherman, Texas, as the ``Paul Brown United States Courthouse''. Judge Brown was an outstanding Federal judge who passed away on November 26 after 21 years of distinguished service. Judge Paul Brown was my good friend, a respected judge, and beloved member of the Sherman, Texas community.

Judge Brown represented the finest qualities of jurisprudence. Hanging on his wall in the Sherman Federal Courthouse were Socrates' four qualities for a good judge--to hear courteously, to answer wisely, to consider soberly, and to decide impartially.

Judge Brown embodied all of these qualities, and he dispensed justice accordingly. He was highly regarded, well-respected, and was a role model for many.

Paul Brown was the youngest of a family of six raised on a farm near Pottsboro, TX. He graduated from Denison High School and although underage, he was able to get his parents' consent to join the U.S. Navy when World War II broke out. He served on a minesweeper in both the Atlantic and Pacific Theaters and as a part of the occupation forces in Japan. He was discharged as an Electrician's Mate 2nd Class in June 1946.

He returned to his studies and received a law degree in 1950 from the University of Texas before being recalled to active duty in the Korean war. He saw combat aboard a minesweeper which was sunk by mines, and he received an honorable discharge in December 1951.

Judge Brown worked as an assistant U.S. Attorney in Texarkana under U.S. Attorney William Steger--who would become his mentor, good friend, and eventually fellow colleague on the bench. He served as Assistant U.S. Attorney from 1953 to 1959, and then followed in Judge Steger's footsteps as U.S. District Attorney from 1959 to 1961.

While in Texarkana, Judge and married Frances Morehead, and the two returned home to Sherman, where he practiced law for a number of years. In 1985 Senator Phil Graham recommended him to President Ronald Reagan for a new judge's position created for the Eastern District of Texas, and he was confirmed that year. He held court in Beaumont, Paris, Sherman, and Texarkana, and as the caseload in Sherman grew, he eventually presided over the Sherman courthouse exclusively.

Premiere cases over the years included intellectual property, patent cases, and criminal cases precipitated by the bank and savings and loan failures of the 1980s and 1990s. In recent years he noted the increase in drug cases and expressed his regret that, in spite of all the efforts that have been made to prosecute drug dealers, the Nation is not making much progress in curtailing the use of drugs. No matter what type of cases came before him, Judge Brown always enjoyed the work and ran an efficient and orderly courtroom. His personal work ethic and judicial integrity were remarkable, and his reputation for punctuality is legendary.

As we near adjournment of the 112th Congress, I ask my colleagues to join me in celebrating the life of a great American, outstanding public servant, and respected jurist. This bill has the support of the Federal judges in the Eastern District, and I ask for your support of H.R. 6633, to designate the United States courthouse in Sherman, Texas, the ``Paul Brown United States Courthouse''.

The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, was read the third time, and passed, and a motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

General Leave

Mr. Speaker, I rise today along with my colleagues, Gene Green and Sheila Jackson Lee, to ask you to join us in a moment of silence honoring our colleague, the Honorable Jack Brooks, former dean, who passed away yesterday evening at the age of 89. Jack Brooks was a fellow Texan and a good friend who served 42 years in Congress. He was a leader dedicated to bettering our country, and he will be sorely and dearly missed by his family, friends, and this Congress.

Well, I don't really want to make a speech. I've enjoyed these speeches I've listened to here. A lot of it was true. Good people, great guys and gals that I work with. I'm honored to be a part of it.

For the past 32 years, I've been here. I really came up here to stay 4 years, and that's what my wife and I agreed on. I just didn't say which 4 I was talking about. But she was always one to encourage me to run, because I had a son who was a district judge, and I think she felt that me being in Congress helped that son. Mommas always love their little cubs. I think he was really helping me, because he was running on the Republican ticket then and I was running on the Democratic ticket. I soon saw the light, and I came over. But I left good friends over here, and there's good people on both sides of the docket.

There's a lot of talk about the parachute. There are things you have to do in politics sometimes. I had a race that started this last time with 78 percent of the votes it looked like. A gentleman from Houston spent $450,000 against me. He didn't know me, didn't know the two people running against me, but spent that amount of money to defeat me for some reason because he thought I was too old to be here. He picked five of us, and the other four didn't take him on. I tried to take him on some, but in taking him on I had to assure my people that I wasn't the old goof that he was saying I was, that I was capable of the work.

The only way I could think of doing it--I run a couple of miles every morning, and when I was running, I looked up and there was an airplane up there. I thought, If I could jump up and touch that airplane, they'd think I was agile enough maybe to keep on being their Congressman. If running 2 miles every morning, voting 99-plus percent of the time, if that wasn't enough, I had to do something else. So I decided if I jump 2 miles, maybe that would be it.

We got in an airplane. I got this guy, and he really was great. He trained me and showed me how to get in and out. Of course, I had flown probably a couple or 300 hours or 400 hours during the war, and I had made one jump during the war, but it wasn't a forced jump. I knew what it was, and I knew that it was okay. I also knew that it would tell people I had not had a stroke, and that's what they were putting out. I wanted them to know I was able and capable of representing them. They had to know that, and they were entitled to know that, so I decided to jump out of that airplane.

We got right over the opening there, and I looked down. I had maybe a couple of hundred people on the ground waiting there. He said, As you jump out, reach with your heel and kick me in the rear. I was glad to do that. Right at the last, I almost decided not to jump, but I was too close and I knew I had to. I might have been pushed a little. I don't even know. I did jump, and he held on to me so tight--there were two of us there. He was holding tight, and that kind of struck me. I turned around and asked him, ``Do you mean it?'' He said, ``What do you mean?'' I said, ``You're holding me so tight. Do you care for me? What's the deal? There's a preacher down there, and the President said men can marry men. Maybe he'll just marry us when we get there.'' He said, ``Shut up. The ground is going to be here in just a few minutes.''

It was a pretty thing to see the Earth coming up to us there and seeing good friends down there that waited in hope for me. Even my undertaker was there. My undertaker meets me every time I go home with a tape measure and tells me he has one in store for me. He also tells me not to worry about flyers; if you don't like them, they'll finally grow on you. It's kind of a smart aleck way to do it, but he's my close friend. He was an intern when I was in the Texas Senate and one of the fine leaders of Rockwall.

For the past 32 years, I've had the honor and the privilege of representing the Fourth District of Texas here in Congress, and I think it's just an honor to know that there have been 10,747 men and women elected to serve and that I may be the oldest to ever serve or to ever vote on the floor. There are others that have been here but didn't vote. I think that date comes up sometime around the 21st day of December.

My first impression of the House of Representatives when I got here began with Speaker Sam Rayburn, whose district I represent. Speaker Rayburn and my wife were good friends at Mayo College. That's what the college name was before it was East Texas State Teachers College. When I was in the senate, I changed it to East Texas State University. My wife graduated from there, and I had the privilege of handing her her diploma. Those are good things, and that's a great institution over there.

Mr. Rayburn, was called by my mother, who had known him back in the earlier days and was at Mayo College with him, to give me some kind of a recommendation to be an officer in the Army or the Navy or the Marine Corps or something. He didn't call her back. He didn't write her a letter back. He came to the breakfast table to tell her, ``Maude, I can't appoint that boy to anything. There's four reasons.'' She said, ``What on Earth can that be?'' He said, ``All four of his grades.'' That was kind of true, because I always thought everything over 70 was wasted.

Not a good student. Not a good football player. We lost our car early in the Depression. One guy in the Depression said he'd eaten so many rabbits he was afraid of his own dog. We didn't have that kind of a problem, but we knew what the Depression was.

I fear for this country right today in that, if we don't get together and maybe forget that we're more Republican than we are Democrat or more Democrat than we are Republican, our children are going to suffer. We need to make a move and think of them. We owe our children an opportunity, and they owe us the effort. It's just that simple. I think, in this next session, we're going to all have some give, that we're all going to get together and try to work something out.

In our leader, we have a good Speaker. He's a guy I admire and respect, a kind Speaker, a guy who means the things that he says. He is a Speaker who cares about us. I don't agree with everything he says, but we need to forget any little pettiness that we have, get behind the leadership here, and try to write some legislation. It's for our children and for our children's children. That's the most important thing I think we can do.

I know my time is about up.

I say to the Chair, thank you very much. I appreciate and understand what the rules are, and I thank my folks for being quiet up there when I know they wanted to be heard.

God bless this Speaker. God bless you, Lamar Smith. You'll make a good chairman of Science, Space, and Technology.

I thank the gentleman--and you are a gentleman. You are my friend and I appreciate you.

I just think we need to get together and remember the most important part of all of us is our children and our children's futures. That's why we all get together, and that's the reason for us to change some of the positions we've taken in the past--to try to work something out that the American people expect us to.

You're a gentleman to offer me that. Maybe I've used part of that 5 minutes. Thank you very much.

My mother always told me to be silent and be thought a fool rather than to open my mouth and remove all doubt. So I don't want to get to talking too much. It's been too good

tonight. All these people have said things, and I care for them. I care for this institution. I care for the people on both sides of this aisle. I'm honored to get to be a part of this.

Thank you. God bless this country.

Mr. Speaker, I, of course, rise in support of H.R. 6586, to extend the application of certain space launch liability regimes.

Everybody is hoping that the House won't be divided, that we're all going to work together. This is a good chance to show them that we are all together on a good bill.

Commercial launch in the United States has a very enviable record. Our rockets are highly reliable, and SpaceX, which has flown two Falcon 9 rockets to the international space station and returned two payloads, is the first commercial company to successfully reenter payloads from space. And in the next 2 months, Orbital Sciences Corporation is scheduled to launch its new rocket that is designed to carry cargo to the space station.

No matter these successes, our industry faces serious pricing challenges from foreign operators. They are able to offer substantially cheaper launch costs because of industrial policy and less expensive labor costs. They also offer generous indemnification coverage. In a report released earlier this summer, the Government Accountability Office stated:

The United States provides less total third-party liability

coverage than China, France, or Russia--the primary countries

that have conducted commercial space launches in the last 5

years.

As Chairman Palazzo mentioned a few minutes ago, commercial launch activity in the United States is expected to pick up in the years to come: first through NASA's reliance on commercial launch companies to ferry cargo and astronauts to and from the international space station, and second, through the introduction of commercial human spaceflight services.

The bill before us would extend the indemnification regime for 2 years to December 31, 2014. It's important that we pass this bill to ensure that we do not jeopardize the ability of NASA to get cargo flights to the space station or inhibit our commercial launch operators' ability to compete for future payloads.

The Committee on Science, Space, and Technology will continue to monitor the activities of the Office of Commercial Space Transportation and the

[[Page H6337!]]

evolving space launch market to ensure that the current risk-sharing and liability regime, including indemnification, is properly structured.

I thank Chairman Palazzo of Mississippi and Ranking Member Costello of Illinois for sponsoring and supporting this bill, and I urge all Members to support it as well.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the rule and H.R. 3409, the Stop the War on Coal Act. This may sound a little strange to a guy from an oil and gas State, but we have an awful lot of coal.

This bill takes a number of simple, commonsense, and long overdue steps to rein in the Obama administration's out-of-control EPA, which is waging all-out war on American energy. Coal is at the heart of that war. Anyone who fails to believe such a war exists should speak to the people of Mount Pleasant, Texas, in my congressional district.

EPA's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule threatened 500 jobs at two coal- fired power plants in Mount Pleasant. Fortunately, the courts threw out this rule in August after finding that EPA went well beyond the law in its efforts to regulate coal out of existence.

We know EPA will go back to the drawing board. H.R. 3409 adds needed protections for any future proposal and, in doing so, protects jobs not only in my State, but in coal-producing States and coal-using States all around the country.

The bill also blocks future efforts to attack coal through other regulations, most notably the EPA's effort to enact economywide restrictions on greenhouse gas emissions. These rules are based on shaky science and would raise the cost of energy for all Americans. They should never see the light of day.

I want to mention my support for two amendments made in order under this rule. They will be offered by members of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, which I chair. These amendments address serious problems with EPA science that the committee highlighted during the 112th Congress; specifically, Congressman Dan Benishek's amendment that requires that an analysis of the cost of regulations explicitly evaluate the potential negative health effects of regulations. Energy and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Andy Harris' amendment would require that the scientific data EPA uses to justify its regulations is peer reviewed and made publicly available.

These amendments reinforce and strengthen the transparency and openness provisions in H.R. 3409. I urge Members to support these amendments, the rule, and the underlying bill as well.

Mr. Speaker, I commend my good friend from Texas, Chairman Smith, for his leadership on the bill today.

As a member of the Science Committee since first elected in 1980, I've heard repeatedly of talented foreign students who receive advanced degrees from American universities who would like to stay in the United States and put those degrees to work and are simply not permitted to do so. So they return home to their home country and ended up competing with us.

Likewise, I hear from industry, particularly the technology industry, that they have ample jobs to fill, but there are not enough qualified Americans to fill those jobs. If this is true, we want those jobs filled by Americans and are working to improve STEM education in the country. But absent that talent now, and with many of these companies already seeking employees overseas, then it seems to me we should take advantage of the opportunity in front of us and help those foreign students who have received their education in the U.S. remain in the

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4158) to confirm full ownership rights for certain United States astronauts to artifacts from the astronauts' space missions.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to include extraneous material on H.R. 4158, the bill now under consideration.

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

I want to begin by thanking members of the Science, Space, and Technology Committee, Republicans and Democrats, for their bipartisan support of this legislation. I especially want to commend my good friends Lamar Smith and Eddie Bernice Johnson for their help and for their early support.

H.R. 4158 would confirm full ownership rights to our Nation's first generation of astronauts who flew during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo era and who received or were allowed to retain artifacts, mementos, and other personal equipment from their missions. H.R. 4158 covers all flights beginning in 1961 through the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, which flew in July of 1975.

From the first days of our manned spaceflight program through the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, at the conclusion of a mission NASA managers routinely allowed astronauts to keep mementos of their flights. In some instances, astronauts were also given certain pieces of expendable equipment. The range of items included space suit emblems, expendable space suits, checklists, flight manuals, and disposable flight hardware salvaged from the jettisoned lunar landers.

A majority of these items have been in the personal possession of the astronauts for 40 years or more. Over the last decade, NASA has begun to challenge the astronauts' ownership of these mementos. This issue was first brought to my attention late last year. I was surprised to learn that NASA had, on an irregular basis, intervened several times to claim ownership.

Early this year, NASA Administrator Bolden met with a small group of astronauts to discuss the agency's artifacts policy. Following the meeting, through NASA's press office, Administrator Bolden issued a statement saying:

These are American heroes, fellow astronauts, and personal

friends who have acted in good faith, and we have committed

to work together to find the right policy.

He went on to say:

I believe there have been fundamental misunderstandings and

unclear policies regarding items from the Mercury, Gemini,

Apollo, and Skylab programs, and NASA appreciates the

position of the astronauts, museums, learning institutions,

and others who have these historic artifacts in personal and

private collections.

This bill seeks to eliminate in any further ambiguity about Apollo- era artifacts that were received by the astronauts. It simply says that astronauts who flew through the end of the Apollo program will be granted full right of ownership of any artifacts received from their missions. If we don't pass this bill, the artifacts and the astronauts face huge financial risks arising from donations, gifts, and sales already completed.

These men are heroes. They're great heroes. Sadly, we had to say good-bye to one of these heroes just last week. They took extraordinary risks to establish American preeminence in space and, by doing so, helped our country become a world leader. I think it's a miscarriage of justice that today NASA should seek return of these very same mementos and keepsakes.

I reserve the balance of my time.

[From NASA News, Jan. 9, 2012]

NASA Administrator Meets With Apollo Astronauts; Agency Will Work

Cooperatively To Resolve Artifact Ownership Issues

(By David Weaver and Bob Jacobs)

Washington, DC.--The following is a statement from NASA

Administrator Charles Bolden regarding the ownership of early

space exploration mementos and artifacts:

``Earlier today, I had a good meeting with former Apollo

astronauts Jim Lovell, Gene

Cernan, Charlie Duke, Rusty Schweickart and other

representatives of former astronauts and agency personnel,

where we discussed how to resolve the misunderstandings and

ownership questions regarding flight mementos and other

artifacts.

``These are American heroes, fellow astronauts, and

personal friends who have acted in good faith, and we have

committed to work together to find the right policy and legal

paths forward to address outstanding ownership questions.

``I believe there have been fundamental misunderstandings

and unclear policies regarding items from the Mercury,

Gemini, Apollo and Skylab programs, and NASA appreciates the

position of the astronauts, museums, learning institutions

and others who have these historic artifacts in personal and

private collections.

``We also appreciate their patience and will explore all

policy, legislative and other legal means to resolve these

questions expeditiously and clarify ownership of these

mementos, and ensure that appropriate artifacts are preserved

and available for display to the American people.''

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Palazzo), the chairman of the Space and Aeronautics Subcommittee.

Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the ordering of the yeas and nays on the motion that the House suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 4158) to confirm full ownership rights for certain United States astronauts to artifacts from the astronauts' space missions, be vacated, to the end that the Chair put the question de novo.

Mr. Chairman, I, of course, rise in support of H.R. 6213.

This bill makes more important changes to better protect taxpayer funds spent under the Department of Energy's title XVII loan guarantee authority. I thank Chairman Upton for his good work and his committee.

The Science, Space, and Technology Committee has jurisdiction over the commercial application of energy technology. One purpose of the title XVII loan guarantee program is to move energy technologies from research and development to commercial application. As part of our oversight responsibility for this program, we examined it on numerous occasions, including earlier this year as part of a hearing in which we received testimony from Energy Secretary Steven Chu. The poster child for this poor judgment is Solyndra, which President Obama famously touted as a ``true engine of economic growth'' for the United States.

Most Americans are familiar with Solyndra's story, in which the Department of Energy gambled half a billion taxpayer dollars to support a failing solar company whose leading investors, I'm sorry to say, were major fundraisers and supporters of our President. Less well known is that the DOE made 25 other gambles under the program's section 1705 authority, staking a total of approximately $16 billion of American taxpayer money on what they call green energy companies with risky business models similar to that of Solyndra. I am also sorry to say that many of these companies also have ties to the current administration through investors that are major donors, bundlers, and advocates.

If more of these companies fail, the Department of Energy made clear that it could restructure loan agreements in the same manner that it handled Solyndra, placing political supporters and private investors at the front of the line while leaving taxpayers holding the bag. This legislation would absolutely prevent that from happening again by requiring that taxpayer dollars are not subordinate to private finance should more bankruptcies result from this program.

Further, the bill seeks to limit taxpayer risk by prohibiting DOE from making new loan guarantee awards for projects from applications submitted after December 31, 2011.

These are necessary fixes to a troubled program, and I urge Members to support the underlying legislation.

I appreciate the Committee on Energy and Commerce. Again, Mr. Chairman, thank you for working with the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology to further improve the bill in advance of it being brought to the floor.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I, of course, rise today in support of H.R. 6007, the North Texas Zebra Mussel Barrier Act of 2012. When I read in the papers and hear in the press that Republicans and Democrats can't get together on anything, well, we're together on something today, and I think the gentlemen have adequately described the enemy.

North Texas has a very serious problem with an invasive aquatic species called zebra mussel. I'd never heard of them before. I hope I never hear of them again. Zebra mussels are going to attach to probably just about anything. They infest and cover rocks, attach to boats and docks, and clog water pipelines. North Texas has a unique situation due to a Texas-Oklahoma boundary change that requires a congressional solution. You know you hear people say it takes an act of Congress to get something accomplished. Well, that's exactly what we're here doing today.

The local water folks have been working extremely hard to prevent the spread of zebra mussels while simultaneously attempting to provide enough clean water for our citizens, but they absolutely need our help. They need this help. H.R. 6007 allows the North Texas Municipal Water District to pump water from Lake Texoma straight into the Wylie, Texas, Water Treatment Plant where the water can be cleaned of zebra mussels without being in violation of the Lacey Act. These folks are the only ones who have tackled and solved this problem. They're not the only ones who have tackled it, but they're the only ones who have solved this problem. It has been at their own expense, and they have solved it. Now they need our support.

In the late 1980s, the North Texas Municipal Water District built the Lake Texoma pump station to better serve its use. This was built entirely within the Texas border and in accordance with the Army Corps of Engineers' 1939 survey, which defined the Texas and Oklahoma boundary line.

In 2000, a variation in the Texas-Oklahoma border was enacted into law, and the pump station ended up straddling the two States. Since the Lacey Act prohibits the transfer of zebra mussels across State lines, it effectively has banned the use of the Texoma water pump station since the year 2009, which was when zebra mussels first appeared in Lake Texoma. The North Texas Municipal Water District generally receives 28 percent of its water supply from Lake Texoma.

H.R. 6007 will enable the water district to resume pumping water to better serve more than 1.5 million users and to do so in a manner that provides safe water in the tradition of its 20-year history. The bill will allow the Texoma water pump to reopen, to provide much-needed jobs and to provide enough clean water to the community during a season of very severe drought, when water is desperately needed.

On May 3 of this year, the Army Corps of Engineers approved a 404 permit that will allow the construction of a 46-mile water pipeline from Lake Texoma straight into the Wylie Water Treatment Plant, which would remove 100 percent of the zebra mussels and would provide clean water for North Texas citizens and businesses.

This is a commonsense solution, a necessary solution and one for which I certainly want to thank the chairman, Doc Hastings.

Madam Speaker, I, of course, rise in support of H.R. 4078, the Regulatory Freeze for Job Acts of 2012, which seeks to eliminate needless red tape and puts Americans back to work. I also thank and am proud of Darrell Issa and Lamar Smith for the handling of this bill.

The Committee on Science, Space, and Technology has explored regulatory hurdles being put up by a number of agencies, and we've seen a massive expansion of red tape under this administration. Much of it has come from the Environmental Protection Agency, where too many of the environmental regulations put forward have been based on secret science, hidden data, and predetermined outcomes--and some just outright phony.

EPA appears to be hostile toward economic growth and job creation. For example, EPA's Cross-State Air Pollution Rule added Texas in at the last minute and threatened hundreds of jobs in my district and electric reliability across my State.

One amendment to be offered to H.R. 4078, while well-intentioned, may have the unintended effect of driving agencies to make policy decisions without considering scientific information.

While science almost never provides one specific answer to a policy decision, sound science should be used to inform the ultimate decision- maker. Science can tell you how the world is, not how the world should be.

Eliminating other considerations, whether they be moral or ethical, leaves some scientists and unelected bureaucrats in charge.

At a time, Madam Speaker, when many American families are struggling, H.R. 4078 eliminates red tape, reduces costs, and improves the environment for small businesses and job creators by getting Washington out of the way.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to present a poem by Dona Julian Cassel. Ms. Cassel graduated from East Texas State University, currently Texas A&M University-Commerce, in 1967 with a bachelor's degree in Elementary Education and 1971 with a master's degree in English. She is a retired teacher who has since formed her own training company which works with businesses to teach their staff communication and customer service skills.

Ms. Cassel's writing is timely for our Nation, and something I believe can inspire Americans to act.

Battle Cry, a Call to Action

Now is the time to take your stand!

Don't huddle in the shadows anymore--

Your collective voices must soon be heard.

Send your lawmakers a resounding roar!

Make your earnest requests be known!

Demand from Congress and from your state--

Empowerment to teach as you know best

To produce the results that made America great!

O teachers! What power you still possess!

Immortal forces upon the ages--

This noble profession which is your calling

Deserves respect and rightful wages!

Defend the honor of your vocation!

Keep its standards lifted high!

Unite! Join this call to action!

Embrace these stanzas as your battle cry!

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in honor of the Lady Jacket Basketball team of Rockwall, Texas for their efforts during the 2012 4A State Championship game in Austin, Texas.

The game was extremely close; however, the Lady Jackets fell short 45-42, showing incredible heart and determination throughout the game. I commend their hard work throughout the entire season.

The Lady Jacket's head coach, Jill McDill, praised her team as one of the best defenses she had ever coached.

Special congratulations to Paige Turner and Alyssa Lang for being named to the Class 4A All-Tournament Team.

The reputation of the Lady Jacket Basketball program is one that is filled with pride and respect from the players, fans, and the entire Rockwall community.

Mr. Speaker, as we adjourn today, let us recognize Rockwall's Lady Jacket Basketball team, commend them for their successful season, and wish them continued success.