Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, like many Members in the House, I spent a good part of August visiting with people in the 19th Congressional District that sent me here. I had several coffees all across my district. One of the things that they spoke loud and clear of is that they are very concerned about the direction of their country. And as I listened to the President's speech and I listened to some of his advisers, they think these people are not Main Street America, that they are somehow disillusioned. Well, they are disillusioned. They are disillusioned with our government. They see their government bailing out banks. They see their government bailing out car companies. They see their government taking over every aspect of their lives and now wants to take over our health care. I want to read you some of the comments from the people of the 19th Congressional District.

Janie from Lubbock, Texas: ``I am self-employed and pay my taxes. I firmly believe we currently have way too much government in our business and daily lives.''

Jennifer from Wolfforth, Texas: ``Keep the government out of our health care. Remind them of our broken systems, Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid. We don't need another one.''

Bobby from Lubbock: ``I do not want the government to run my health care. America does not need any more debt.''

Rick from Lubbock asked this question: ``Why can't government cut back on its spending like the rest of us have to?''

Nelma from Lubbock: ``My husband and I were born into very poor families. We were able to realize the American Dream. I want this opportunity for the upcoming generations.''

Michael from Lubbock: ``Reform is definitely necessary, but not the kind that has been proposed.''

James from Lubbock: ``Read, understand and apply the Constitution.'' A novel idea, James.

Mandy from Lubbock: ``We want to keep our great insurance that we pay premiums for. We don't want to have our tax dollars fund another fiasco and become another Canada.''

Holly from Wolfforth: ``Stop the spending. When I was deeply in debt, I stopped buying, worked hard and paid for things slowly but surely. I am out of debt now. I did not ask anyone to print money for me or pay for me.''

John from Lubbock: ``Promise us that you will sign yourself, your family on the same plan that you force us into.''

Grace from Lubbock: ``I hope you have listened to the many people here in Lubbock who do not have health insurance and who cannot afford it.''

James from Lubbock: ``The U.S. Congress and the executive branch of the Federal Government, in particular, should limit their reach to what is allowed by our Founding Fathers' documents.''

Robert from Lubbock: ``We must stop this crazy deficit spending and borrowing.''

Marilyn from Lubbock: ``I hope that you will find a way to use the programs already available to cover all Americans.''

Rosalie from Lubbock: ``Government is spending too much money. Back off.''

Larry from Lubbock: ``In the bill there is language limiting the growth of physician-owned hospitals. These hospitals are able to supply health care services more efficiently than other community-based larger hospitals. I am against this bill.''

Sandra from Lubbock: ``We need to slow things down and people need to read all of the bill before doing any voting.

Kayla from Lubbock, who attended with her grandmother: ``I am 9 years old, and I am wondering why the heck you're spending my future. Thank you for listening.''

Ron from Lubbock: ``When my kids were in college, my friends called me the ATM. I don't know the President. I don't want to be his ATM.''

George from Lubbock: ``As Big Government continues to expand, there is a commensurate loss of individual freedom, accompanied by excessive spending and an amassing of a ridiculous deficit.''

Michelle from Lubbock: ``I am a RN in a local emergency room. I am personally against the health care bill. How do we fix overcrowding of ERs? ER nurses are working twice as hard and seeing twice as many patients compared to the past.''

Jack from Lubbock, ``Say `no' to the government health care and protect our borders.''

Joel from Lubbock: ``Please say `no' to all excessive spending. Some of it does not fit with our Constitution.''

Susan from Lubbock: ``I have been an RN for 34 years. I am tired of seeing patients turned away due to lack of insurance. This takes such a toll on families and health care providers.''

Mary from Lubbock: ``Please do all that you can to keep health care in our hands, not the government.''

Mr. Speaker, Mr. President, these are not people that are off on some tangent. These are people that are concerned about their country. They are concerned that the government is taking over every aspect of their lives. They're concerned that we are mortgaging the future of their children and their grandchildren. They're concerned that their personal liberties and freedoms are at risk.

Mr. President and Madam Speaker, it's time to listen to the American people and quit giving speeches.

Mr. Speaker, like many Members in the House, I spent a good part of August visiting with those who sent me here to Washington to represent them. I held seven ``Coffee with the Congressman'' meetings in all parts of the 19th Congressional District, and I was amazed at the tremendous amount of turnout.

Those who came to these meetings were upset about the direction that the government is taking their country. They want their voices to be heard in Washington. I told them I would bring their messages back to Congress with me, and hundreds of those attending our meetings filled out these message forms. As I said, I would like to read these comments on the House floor so that everyone in Congress will know how they feel. The people of the 19th Congressional District, and I think people all across America, share these same thoughts. So, for the next 5 minutes, you're going to hear from the people who came to the August 24 townhall meeting in Abilene, Texas, in their own words.

David from Abilene, Texas wrote these comments:

``My message to Washington is fix Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, VA, and welfare first. When they have a good working system in place, then we can talk about taking on health care.''

Claude from Tuscola, Texas had these comments:

``In my business, I have 19 employees, and I have reasonable health care coverage for all my employees, and I furnish this at no cost to my employees. Two of my employees cover their families at their expense. It is a very good policy.''

Jerry from Abilene said, ``I'm a 75-year old male, married 52 years with 6 grandchildren and 4 great-grandchildren. This is all about the enormous debt I will be leaving for them. Please quit the spending, and look for ways to cut costs and improve our current system.''

Charles from Abilene said, ``You can't borrow your way out of debt. When you find yourself in a hole, stop digging. Whatever happened to common sense? Stop the cap-and-trade bill. It will raise taxes on all and not affect the global climate. Drill for oil in Alaska and our coastal waters, where there are proven reserves. If the health care bill is good enough for the taxpayers, it should be used by the President, Congress and the unions.''

Charleye from Abilene said, ``I do not want the government to control our health care. Please do not pass the proposed health care reform. Government spending is out of control. Please put a cap on spending in all areas. Not more bailouts--for anybody. Please listen, and stop spending our money now.''

Bill from Abilene asked this question:

``Should this health care bill get passed, will all of the national politicians have to get on it too, or will you still keep your individual health insurance you have now?''

Trudy from Abilene said, ``Please stand against all bills that are not read and debated. `No' to government health care.''

Tom from Abilene said, ``You must do everything possible to prevent publicly funded abortions in the health care bill.''

Maria from Merkel, Texas said, ``People fail to see I am paying for this. Somebody has to. I'm tired of paying taxes toward things that people don't want to work for.''

Lucile from Abilene says, ``I do not want government control of my health care. This excess spending is ruining the U.S. Please be serious about your country and its citizens.''

Grace from Abilene said, ``No new taxes. We need insurance reform, not health care reform. The government bankrupted Medicare, not the recipients. No more bailouts. When did we start bailing out people that lived beyond their means in their high-priced homes?''

Mike from Abilene: ``I am a 27-year retired Air Force veteran. I am concerned about TRICARE for life and the

loss of benefits under the new health care bill.''

Amy from Abilene: ``Please save citizens of the U.S. from paying for abortions or any encouraging of such, from any funding directly or indirectly of euthanasia.''

Caryn from Abilene: ``Leave our health care alone and cut our taxes.''

Ruth from Cisco: ``Please continue to stand for truth and freedom in Washington. The health care bill is not about more health care, but less--rationing.''

Hal from Abilene: ``I am not against sensible reform. I am against government control of our economy and health care. In short, stay within the confines of the Constitution and out of our lives.''

Marion and Mary from Abilene: ``Stop the runaway spending like cap- and-trade. Fix our present health care system. Support our vets, old and new.''

Emily from Abilene: ``I don't think most Congressmen realize or understand the true feelings of the American people. We used to have real regard for our leaders.''

Jerry and Camille from Ranger, Texas: ``Stop the bailouts. Stop the outrageous spending and get back to following the Constitution. Read all the bills before signing. I was in the front row and I had never been to a town hall meeting before.''

Kay from Abilene: ``I oppose cap-and-trade which will dramatically reduce our standard of living and is absolutely unnecessary.''

J.M. from Abilene: ``Government has to stop spending and pay our way out of debt.''

This is just a small fraction, Mr. Speaker, of how the American people feel.

Libby from Abilene: ``While we have Medicaid for people, it is impossible to find a doctor who will take new Medicaid patients in Abilene.''

Mike from Abilene: ``Do not pass health care reform that reduces Medicare benefits or makes access to doctors more difficult.''

Betty from Abilene: ``Read the bills before you sign them.''

Robert and Essie Mae from Abilene: ``Stop the spending!''

Debra from Abilene: ``What are the pros and cons to mandatory health care as with auto insurance, seat belt laws and smoking bans?''

Edna from Jayton: ``First, we should reduce government.''

Maetta from Abilene: ``How about our representatives and senators sharing in the same health plan that they provide for the rest of us?''

Madam Speaker, pursuant to the Republican standards on member requests, I am submitting the following information regarding a congressionally directed appropriation project I sponsored as part of H.R. 3326, FY 2010 Department of Defense Appropriations Act.

Agency/Account: Department of the Army--RDT&E

Amount: $1,500,000

Requesting Entity: Texas Tech University, The Institute of Environmental and Human Health (TIEHH), 2500 Broadway, Lubbock, TX 79409

The funding for the Zumwalt National Program for Countermeasures to Biological and Chemical Threats is requested to further the understanding and ability of operational military forces to identify, prevent, and mitigate any threats war fighters may face from biological and chemical weapon agents in any environment at any time.

Madam Speaker, I would like to take this time to recognize distinguished writer, speaker, and entertainer, Bob Lewis, better known as Tumbleweed Smith. Tumbleweed Smith is both creator and producer of the renowned radio program The Sound of Texas. August 1, 2009 will mark the celebration of 40 prosperous years on the air, making The Sound of Texas the longest running syndicated radio program in Texas.

In his 40 years of interviews, Tumbleweed Smith has accumulated the largest private collection of oral history in the United States. His one-man shows have been performed all over Texas, as well as six other states, and three other countries.

In addition to being an influential entertainer, Tumbleweed Smith has won international recognition for his advertising and production work. His honors include two CLIO advertising awards, the Governor's Award for Tourism, the West Texas Chamber of Commerce Cultural Achievement award and two Freedom Foundation awards.

The Texas House of Representatives has recognized Tumbleweed ``for creating a priceless resource of Texas folk tales, lore and wisdom.'' He was honored by the Texas House of Representatives in 1999 for his outstanding communication skills and radio service to West Texas. In 2008 he was recognized by the Texas State Senate for celebrating his 10,000th program of The Sound of Texas.

Mr. Lewis resides in Big Spring, TX with his wife Susan and they have two sons, two daughters-in-law, and four grandsons. He writes a syndicated weekly news column and teaches radio production in the Permian Basin. Tumbleweed Smith is a true gem to West Texas. I am proud to honor his achievements and look forward to more of his unique and entertaining work in the future.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in recognition of the rededication of a Texas Historical Landmark, Camp Hereford Italian Prisoner of War Camp memorial chapel. This World War II monument has survived more than 64 years as a symbol of the shared history that binds Texas, the United States, and Italy together.

During World War II, the Hereford POW camp stretched across 800 acres in Castro and Deaf Smith counties in West Texas. It was the second largest United States POW camp built during World War II. An estimated 5,000 Italian POWs were held at the site between February 1943 and June 1946, when the last of the POWs were repatriated.

In 1945, the Italian POWs received permission from the U.S. military to pay for and build a chapel within the camp to serve as a marker for the burial site of their fallen soldiers. In honor of their five comrades who died while interned, skilled artisan Italian prisoners constructed the thirteen-foot-square chapel. After the war, the deceased were exhumed and returned to Italy, leaving the chapel abandoned and vulnerable to deterioration.

n 1988, former POWs donated money, original sketches, and photographs for the first major restoration of the chapel. The project was completed in time for a reunion held in Hereford in June, 1989. In 1992, the Texas Historical Commission declared the chapel a Recorded Texas Historical Landmark.

In spite of its historical significance, the chapel was severely vandalized in 2008. Thanks to financial support from the Committee for Italians Living Abroad and the volunteer effort of Castro and Deaf Smith county residents, the chapel has once again been restored to its original beauty. The Castro County Historical Commission and Committee for Italians Living Abroad will co-host a rededication ceremony Saturday, August 8, 2009.

The restoration of this monument stands to preserve the history of the mutual regard that developed between the prisoners and their captors in rural Texas, and I congratulate the community for preserving this piece of history.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of the Garrett substitute. This is a reasonable and thoughtful substitute. Republicans on the Financial Services Committee are here to bring good ideas to the table to try to work with the majority to ensure that our markets operate with transparency and integrity.

Our substitute includes a non-binding shareholder vote on executive legislation. Rather than vote every year, though, our substitute aligns the vote with standard time frames of compensation packages and ensures that institutional investors who represent the shareholders in casting their votes will be able to have proper time to do the due diligence necessary to make meaningful votes.

The substitute allows shareholders who don't want to be involved in these votes to opt out. Makes sense to me. If I don't want to particularly be involved in that, give me the opportunity.

Finally, the substitute ensures that the Federal Government cannot decide to pay for employees or financial institutions. Determining pay practices is not the role of government. As we work together to reform the financial regulatory structure, debating compensation practices may make some feel better, but it doesn't fix the cause of our financial crises. While we and the public may not like to hear about some of the large salaries and bonuses others have earned, we have to ask ourselves how much did these compensation practices really contribute to the problem.

The most important tool available to regulators is the ability to set capital standards for financial institutions, not the ability to tell financial institutions how they can pay or how much they should pay their employees. We need regulators to ensure capital and leverage ratios at financial institutions match the risk that those entities are taking on. That's what regulators should focus on, not deciding whether or not a certain incentive practice is appropriate or not.

Ohio State University finance professor Rene Stulz recently released a finished study comparing bank performance last year and CEO incentives leading up to the crisis. Professor Stulz is quoted in today's New York Times: ``It's hard to believe that regulators will be better at devising compensation plans with proper incentives,'' he says. ``Properly designed capital requirements are a much more efficient approach to regulate the risk of financial institutions than fiddling with compensation.''

When we allow Federal regulators to decide how much employees of financial institutions get paid, the government is overreaching. Congress should be working to encourage well-managed, well-run, and well-capitalized financial institutions. This bill does the opposite.

Support the commonsense Garrett substitute.

Mr. Speaker, I originally came down here to talk about the fact that when my two grandsons, Nathan and Noah, need to know whether they need their tonsils out, we're going to let the doctor make that decision, not the President of the United States or the Speaker of the House. But then the gentleman from Massachusetts got up and was quoting a comment that Chairman Bernanke made the other day about the stimulus package.

What he didn't talk about was the rest of the comment that Mr. Bernanke made when we said, The fact that we're borrowing 50 cents of every dollar that we spend, do you think that that would change your predictions down the road if we keep spending at this level?

This is to quote the Chairman: ``Down the road, it might. As I talked about in my testimony, I do think it's very important that we look at a medium-term fiscal sustainability, that we have a plan for getting back to reasonably low deficits and a sustainable debt-to-GDP ratio. Otherwise, we might see interest rates rise, which would be a negative for the economy.''

I said, Do you think we can keep spending and having these trillion dollar deficits and not put our country--is that sustainable? Chairman Bernanke said, ``No, sir. It's not.''

Madam Speaker, pursuant to the Republican standards on member requests, I am submitting the following information for publication in the Congressional Record regarding congressionally directed appropriation projects I sponsored as part of H.R. 3288, FY 2010 Departments of Transportation, and Housing and Urban Development, and related agencies Appropriations Act.

Agency/Account: Federal Transit Administration/Buses and Bus Facilities

Amount: $200,000

Requesting Entity: City of Abilene, P.O. Box 60, Abilene, TX 79601

The City of Abilene operates a bus system that provides the community with 12 fixed bus routes, ADA paratransit service, and demand-response evening service. The overall system had 583,000 passengers in FY 2008. Given the importance of the bus system to the community, Abilene has developed a comprehensive plan to improve the facilities, including Transfer Facility Rehabilitation, Bus Stop Improvements, Maintenance Facility Improvements, Bus Facility Security, and Bus Stop Signage.

Agency/Account: Federal Transit Administration/Buses and Bus Facilities

Amount: $750,000

Requesting Entity: City of Lubbock/Citibus, P.O. Box 2000, Lubbock,

Madam Speaker, pursuant to the Republican standards on member requests, I am submitting the following information regarding congressionally directed projects in H.R. 3292, The Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services, Education and Related Agencies Appropriations Act of Fiscal Year 2010.

Agency/Account: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)-- Health Facilities and Services

Amount: $480,000

Requesting Entity: Texas Tech University Health Sciences Center, 3601 4th Street, Lubbock, TX 79409

The people of West Texas and the contiguous regions of Eastern New Mexico and Oklahoma represent an underserved population in terms of local access to cancer therapeutics. This funding would support the Cancer Center for the South Plains Region which seeks to reduce suffering from cancer in the region through education, prevention, and early access to state-of-the art cancer therapeutics. The Cancer Center will serve the region, state, and nation by decreasing the substantial costs associated with the morbidity and mortality from cancer.

Agency/Account: Health Resources and Services Administration (HRSA)-- Health Facilities and Services

Amount: $250,000

Requesting Entity: Texas Tech University, 2500 Broadway, Lubbock, TX

79409

The Center for the Study of Addiction and Recovery (CSAR) is a federal and state supported program dedicated to expanding recovery support and relapse prevention available for students and to serve as a demonstration program that can easily be replicated by other institutions of higher education. A number of other colleges and universities around the country have created college recovery communities based on curriculum developed by CSAR.

Madam Speaker, I'm very disappointed because the Democrats and the administration don't think the American people are either smart enough or they don't trust them to make their own decisions.

The Democrats and the administration have introduced a reform for financial markets that is going to start telling the American people, Hey, you're not smart enough or we don't trust you to determine what kind of

credit card you should have. We don't trust you, we don't think you're smart enough to determine what kind of mortgage you should take out.

We don't trust you, we don't think you're smart enough to determine what kind of car loan you should have. We don't trust you and we don't think you're smart enough to determine what kind of checking account that you should have.

Now we're going to tell the American people we don't think you're smart enough or don't trust you to pick your own health care.

You know, the American people are getting kind of tired of the Democrats telling them that they don't trust them or they don't think they're smart enough.

Madam Speaker, the Republicans have introduced a financial reform that says to the American people: we think you're smart enough when have you the right information.

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

Mr. Chairman, I rise today on a simple mission: to help get some of the taxpayers' money back.

We passed an historic spending bill back in February, saddling our children and our grandchildren with mountains of debt. We were told that these funds would go towards projects that were targeted, temporary and, most importantly, timely--referred to as ``shovel- ready.'' Well, guess what, Mr. Chairman?

According to the White House's own Web site, recovery.gov, just 11 projects have been awarded by the Department of Transportation so far. Just 11 projects. So we rushed out to spend $20-plus billion. We were told we can't wait until we get through the normal appropriations process. We've got to go spend this money right now so we can get it out and so we can create the jobs. Let me tell you how reliable this recovery.gov is.

Just this week, a military installation in my district was featured on the Drudge Report for what appeared to be excessive amounts of stimulus spending. It turns out that an error was, in fact, made by-- you guessed it, Mr. Chairman--the operators of recovery.gov. They couldn't even enter a contract award correctly onto the Web site, which is supposed to be the model of government transparency. This is just one more example of how flawed this recovery process has been.

One of the things that astounds me is that we said we had to go out and spend all of this money and that it was going to create jobs. Well, the question is: Where are the jobs, Mr. Chairman? What we've seen since we passed this recovery package is that people have lost their jobs. Today, 14 million people are out of work; 9.5 percent of Americans don't have jobs. Do you know what we're helping them do now? We're saying, You know what? We know you don't have a job, and we know you're having a hard time getting by. Do you know what we're going to do? We're going to pile up mounds and mounds and mounds of debt so that your children and grandchildren will have to work 25 hours a day just to pay the debt.

Mr. Chairman, what this simple amendment does is say, You know what? We were wrong. We thought we could spend this $21 billion. We needed to get it out immediately. We found out we can't, so we're going to give part of that money back. We're going to give $13 billion of it back.

Let me tell you the logic of what this bill does today. We said we had to rush to get this $21 billion spent. What we're saying and what we know is that now 13 projects and less than $1 billion of contracts have been awarded. Do you know what we're going to reward the government to do? We're going to say, Y'all did such a bad job of not spending the $21 billion we gave you back in the spring that we're going to reward you. We're going to give you another $21 billion of the taxpayers' money. By the way, Mr. Chairman, it's $21 billion we don't have. It's $21 billion we don't have.

So what we're going to have to do is not only give them another $21 billion, but we're going to have to borrow $21 billion from China or from Japan or from some other country. It just doesn't make sense to keep going down this path. Mr. Chairman, we have to stop that.

I reserve the balance of my time.

I dare to disagree with the gentleman. What we're stopping from happening here is what we call in Texas ``double dipping,'' because we gave them $21 billion from some of these same programs less than 6 months ago. They've only spent 11 percent of it, so I don't think we're cutting anything.

What we're saying is we're going to cut out the monkey business here. We're not going to allow them to double dip, and we're going to give that money back to the American people, Mr. Chairman. They're not even going to spend this $21 billion probably in the next fiscal year. They've spent only 11 percent since the inception of this bill. So we're not cutting anything. We're just saying, Hey, you're having trouble spending the first $21 billion. We'd like this $21 billion back. If you want to bring it back in another appropriations bill, we'll allow you to do that, but the problem is that we are accumulating this huge debt. Our national debt is at $11.7 trillion. That's $37,000 for every American in this country.

In just a few months, I'm going to have my third grandchild. Do you know what? I'm going to give that child a present or, I guess, the government is going to give that child a present. I'm going to write a letter and say, Your granddaddy was here to inform you that, on your birthday, you owe $37,000 right out of the chute.

The American people are fed up with it. They want their money back. We cannot allow these government agencies to double dip. They're not spending the American taxpayers' money wisely. They're not creating jobs, and they're sick and tired of it. They're fed up. If you really want to make a mark in this Congress, vote for this amendment, and give the American people their money back.

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

Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Well, Mr. Speaker, where are the jobs? That's what the American people want to know. What they know is the plan that the Democrats have isn't working, spending money we do not have. Not just a little bit of money but trillions of dollars that we don't have.

Chairman Bernanke spoke to the House Financial Services Committee today, and he said: Maintaining the confidence of the public and the financial markets requires that policy measures begin planning now for restoration of fiscal balance. Unless we demonstrate a strong commitment to fiscal sustainability, we will have neither fiscal financial stability nor doable economic growth.

I'll interpret that for you. If we keep spending money we do not have, we are not going to create jobs. We are going to lose more jobs.

Last week, the Federal deficit in this country reached $1 trillion. If you started counting to $1 trillion, it would take you 17,000 years.

We're talking about real money. We cannot continue on this spending spree that Congress is in, spending money that we do not have.

Mr. Speaker, where are the jobs? The American people want their jobs back.

Madam Speaker, pursuant to the Republican standards on member requests, I am submitting the following information regarding congressionally directed appropriation projects I sponsored as part of H.R. 3183, FY 2010 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Bill.

Agency/Account: Army Corps of Engineers--Construction

Amount: $1,000,000

Requesting Entity: Brazos River Authority

This funding would be used toward the federal portion of the flood control project underway between the Army Corps of Engineers and the Brazos River Authority that was authorized in 1999.

Agency/Account: Army Corps of Engineers--Investigations

Amount: $220,000

Requesting Entity: City of Abilene

This funding would be used for the federal portion of the flood control project between the Army Corps of Engineers and the City of Abilene. The funds will complete development of a detailed study of local flood protection alternatives in the Elm Creek Watershed.

Agency/Account: Department of Energy--EERE

Amount: $1,000,000

Requesting Entity: Texas Tech University, Wind Science and Engineering Center, 2500 Broadway, Lubbock, TX 79409

This funding is requested to focus on further extension and applications of the capabilities and facilities of the Texas Tech Wind Power Research Facility and its use as a unique national asset, will characterize the Gulf of Mexico offshore wind resource, will continue the development and application of wind-driven reverse osmosis water purification systems, and will continue outreach and education of the associated technologies, their applications, and results.

Madam Speaker, I was absent from votes on July 13, 2009 due to a flight delay. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on rollcall No. 530.

Madam Speaker, pursuant to the Republican standards on member requests, I am submitting the following information regarding congressionally directed appropriation projects I sponsored as part of H.R. 2997, FY 2010 Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act.

Agency/Account: National Institute of Food and Agriculture RE/FA

Amount: $1,730,000

Requesting Entity: Texas Tech University, 2500 Broadway, Lubbock, TX 79409

The Cotton Production and Research Center is a multidisciplinary cotton research program for the Southwest cotton production region that serves as a market and policy analysis program for natural fibers. The research focuses on maximizing efficiency for regional and U.S. cotton production, marketing and trade. Overall, the project goals are to: develop new information and technologies, increase cotton and textile production, reduce costs, improve market efficiency, increase exports, and improve the U.S. textile industry's global competitiveness.

Agency/Account: National Institute of Food and Agriculture RE/FA

Amount: $946,000

Requesting Entity: Texas Tech University, 2500 Broadway, Lubbock, TX 79409

The International Center for Food Industry Excellence proposes to build upon the expertise available at Texas Tech University and its collaborating institutions. Center-affiliated researchers will develop and evaluate food innovations that improve the security, safety, functional properties, nutritional quality, eating quality, and consumer acceptance and production characteristics of food available to U.S. consumers. Center scientists engage in innovative research across the farm-to-table continuum to improve food safety, expand uses for existing commodities and identify consumer behaviors and attributes that influence food acceptability and marketability.

Agency/Account: National Institute of Food and Agriculture SRG

Amount: $515,000

Requesting Entity: Texas Tech University, 2500 Broadway, Lubbock, TX 79409

The Great Plains Sorghum Improvement and Utilization Center will build on the Kansas Sorghum Improvement Center, initiated in 2001, by pooling and integrating the research and extension resources for sorghum improvement, utilization, production and marketing located at Kansas State University, Texas Tech University, and Texas A&M University (including USDA-ARS scientists located on those campuses with assigned sorghum responsibilities). Efforts among the three institutions will be integrated to bring new technologies and knowledge together and focus on improvement of profitability in each stage of sorghum production, processing, and marketing.