Floor Statements

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

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

My amendment simply codifies in the NDAA that any foreign terrorist detained be tried in a military tribunal set up by this Congress rather than in an Article III court. The reason for that is quite simple.

Article III courts, which are reserved for our citizens, afford constitutional rights: the right of an attorney, the right to remain silent, a right to face your accuser and to contradict the evidence that's brought against you, evidence which sometimes is being offered by the government and by people in the intelligence community-- information and sources that need to be protected.

Military tribunals, I think, are the more adequate venue for foreign terrorist enemy combatants to be tried and to be given due process fairly, which would also protect our sources and would also protect the way that we gather evidence by men and women in uniform and by panels of men and women in uniform. I had the pleasure of serving in the United States Army JAG Corps. They are people of the utmost integrity and the utmost fairness.

Specifically, despite the fact of our moving further away from 9/11, the war on terror continues, as we have seen with Abdulmutallab, the underwear bomber, as we have seen with Major Nidal Hasan in the Fort Hood shootings, as we have seen with the Times Square bombing, and as we have seen as recently as last week in a second attempt at an underwear-type bombing on an airplane.

So, for these reasons and for the reasons stated previously with regard to detainees at Guantanamo Bay, for those who are not U.S. citizens but who are foreign terrorist detainees--and they should get due process--I believe in the due process venue of the military tribunals and military court down in Guantanamo Bay so that they may get their day in court in a fair way, one that is humane and just.

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

Mr. Chairman, I yield 90 seconds to my friend from Arkansas (Mr. Griffin).

Mr. Chairman, may I inquire as to the time remaining.

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

Mr. Chairman, I would just say to some of the things that have been said that I don't think that what this amendment is saying is in any way disparaging what Article III courts can do or would be successful doing. Certainly I would agree that they could be adequate in prosecuting criminals and people that do crimes in this country. What we are talking about are foreign enemy terrorist combatants, people that commit acts of war against this country in furtherance of the authorization that this Congress passed.

What we have done as a Congress is set up military commissions in ways that can protect evidence, ways that can protect witnesses and sources, and, in my opinion, in a way that the Article III courts might not be able to. I'm not saying that they couldn't. I'm saying that it is a better venue. Just like when we talked about earlier the Ranking Member Smith and Amash amendment, which would preclude the use of military tribunals. As much as the ranking member is saying that options should be on the table, we're saying the same thing.

With that, I hope my colleagues will vote for this amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Jack Nicklaus Congressional Gold Medal Act, officially recognizing the significant role Jack Nicklaus has played in promoting athletic excellence and good sportsmanship in the game of golf, as well as the significant charitable contributions and activities in our community.

Growing up in north Palm Beach County, I had the pleasure of attending high school with Mr. Nicklaus' children. Like many good parents, he was very involved in all school activities, especially sporting events. I can't recall a game across the State of Florida that our school was involved in where he wasn't there. He was always up there in the stands, cheering us on. It's no secret that Jack Nicklaus is widely regarded as the most accomplished professional golfer to ever play the game. But to us, we just saw him as a devoted husband to Barbara and an excellent father of Jackie, Steve, Nan, Gary, and Mike, and now lots of grandchildren.

He is also a philanthropist, as has been stated, who has worked tirelessly to help underserved children and their families in Palm Beach County and across the State of Florida. Through his charitable foundation, Mr. Nicklaus has raised more than $12 million for children's health services. He has also done a lot for warfighters and veterans recovering after returning home from war.

I am proud to cosponsor this legislation to honor Jack Nicklaus, a truly great American, and for his many charitable efforts and for his contributions to the State of Florida and to American society and culture. I consider myself blessed to personally know him and his family.

I want to say thank you to Congressman Baca from California for his leadership in getting cosponsors for this bill. He worked very hard.

Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of the legislation designating the United States Postal Service located in my district at 401 Old Dixie Highway in Jupiter, Florida, as the Roy Rood Post Office Building.

Roy was a longtime resident and a founding father of my hometown of Tequesta, Florida. Roy was born in 1918 on a farm in Jupiter, Florida, one of 11 children. Roy's childhood was spent working on his family's dairy farm where he learned the value of a hard day's work and fostered his love of the outdoors. The Rood farm was also home to Tequesta's first post office.

Rood joined the U.S. Navy in 1941, following the attack on Pearl Harbor. He served with dignity and honor as a trained instructor and aviation mechanic throughout World War II. Rood was stationed on the USS Hollandia C 97, a jeep aircraft carrier that was part of the fleet that participated in the Battle of Guam. By the end of the war, Roy had risen to the rank of aviation mate first class and was an acting chief petty officer.

Following the war, Roy returned home to Florida where he started a landscaping business that continues today. Before his death in October of last year, Roy Rood helped found American Legion Post 271, of which I'm a member; the local Kiwanis Club; the First Bank of Jupiter; and Jupiter Christian School.

Tequesta has seen many changes over the last 60 years and has grown due to the hard work and dedicated lives of people like Roy Rood. He was a fixture in my own hometown of Tequesta and in the many philanthropic organizations along the Treasure Coast, and they are directly attributed to his efforts. The residents of Tequesta are lucky to call Roy Rood our town's founding father. It would be a fitting tribute to Roy Rood's legacy and service to name the post office in Jupiter in his honor.

Mr. Speaker, over the last several years, I got to know Mr. Rood and his wife personally. I can honestly say there is no better, gentler, and kinder man than Mr. Rood. He will truly be missed.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 74 I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

General Leave

Mr. Speaker, the protections provided by the United States Secret Service are vital to assessing security threats and providing a secure environment for our Nation's leaders.

One key aspect of the Service's mission is to secure buildings and grounds where our leaders work and live, including the White House and the Naval Observatory. My bill would explicitly protect these residences of the President and the Vice President from intruders and would clarify current law to distinguish between those who are able to enter the grounds lawfully, like the Secret Service, and those who enter without permission.

This bipartisan bill would improve existing criminal law to ensure that the Secret Service can continue to implement strategies that prevent potentially catastrophic security breaches. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this commonsense, bipartisan piece of legislation to protect our Nation's leaders and national security.

I thank Mr. Smith from Texas for his leadership on this issue, the Judiciary Committee, and Mr. Johnson of Georgia.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak about an issue that's deeply important to me, not as a Republican or Democrat, but as a Catholic American.

President Obama's Department of Health and Human Services announced it will require religious institutions like Catholic schools, Catholic hospitals, and Catholic charities to cover services that violate their core beliefs, like contraception, sterilization, and the morning-after pill. Catholic schools like Notre Dame will be forced to pay millions in penalties if they don't comply with the Federal Government mandate.

Now, this is about much more than just contraception. This is about Catholic schools and Catholic hospitals having to sacrifice conscience to comply with ObamaCare.

I believe that this is a clear violation of the Free Exercise Clause of the First Amendment of the Constitution. What's worse, I believe that this is a move by the Obama administration to establish secularism over religion. That would strike at the core of religious liberty of the Constitution and who we are as Americans. It's just one more reason why ObamaCare is bad law and needs to be repealed.

Our national debt now stands at more than $15.2 trillion. That amount exceeds the entire U.S. economy. Washington's reckless spending now burdens every child born in the U.S. with a $50,000 share of the national debt. If we don't do something about it now, we will be the first generation in American history to leave our children a nation worse than we inherited.

Our skyrocketing debt doesn't just affect our children and their future. It damages our economy and our unemployment rate today. It is a drag on the economy that fuels uncertainty. It hurts our credit rating. It slows economic growth and it prevents job creation.

When President Obama took office, he pledged to cut the deficit in half by 2012. After 3 years in office, has he yet to introduce a credible plan to get our deficits under control? No. Instead, under his watch the country has hit three of the highest deficits on record. That is unacceptable. The national debt has grown by more than 4.6 trillion in his 3 years in office.

We can't solve our debt problems until we address the root cause of this issue, and that is overspending here in Washington, D.C.

In the House, we passed a budget that would put our country on the path to a balanced budget. The Senate didn't pass a budget, they didn't take up our budget. They did nothing.

We passed nearly 1 trillion in spending cuts and we are planning to do more this year. The Senate, as I said, has not written a budget in nearly 1,000 days.

If your family was trying to get out of the red, you would sit down at the table, figure out how much you're making, how much you're spending and where you should cut back. The Senate refuses to do that. Think about that for a second. How on earth are we supposed to get our fiscal house in order if the Senate won't even write a budget?

Why won't the Senate do their job? One word: Politics. It is no wonder we have a 12 percent approval rating.

It is time to cut up the credit cards here in Washington and stop spending money we don't have. The longer we wait, the harder it will be to fix the mess that we are in. Putting our country on a responsible fiscal path is the only way to restart the economy and ensure our children a prosperous future.

Mr. Speaker, today I wish to congratulate Mr. William (Bill) Osborne of Atlanta, Georgia for 50 years of dedicated Federal service to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. He has also served as the Commandant of the 3388th USARF School in Tampa, Florida with prior assignments in the Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff for Logistics at the 81st U.S. Army Reserve Command in Atlanta, Georgia. He retired from the Army Reserve in April 1993 at the rank of Colonel. I hope Members will join with me today to thank Mr. Osborne for his contributions to the Corps of Engineers, his local community and the United States of America.

Mr. Osborne began his career with the Corps of Engineers in 1957 as a summer hire in the Operation Division in the Nashville District. After graduating from the University of Tennessee with a Bachelor's Degree in Engineering he joined the Jacksonville District as a Civil Engineer. In 1970, he transferred to the South Atlantic Division and took a position as the Assistant Chief of the Program Management Office. Since 1988 he has been the Chief of the Civil Works Integration Division. In this position he puts together the South Atlantic Division's portion of the President's Civil Works Budget for Congressional consideration.

Some of the major projects for which he has provided Congress justification documentation include the Tennessee Tombigbee Waterway, Herbert Hoover Dike, Portugues and Bucana Rivers, and two of the largest environmental projects in the country; South Florida Ecosystem Restoration and the Comprehensive Restoration of the Mississippi Barrier Islands projects. Over his stellar career he has justified billions of Federal dollars in support of these and countless other much needed projects. For over two decades he has provided exceptional support to Division Commanders, Chiefs of Engineers and the Assistant Secretaries of the Army in their annual testimony before Congress. Through his expert knowledge of the Civil Works process Mr. Osborne consistently provided outstanding service in the relationship with the public, Congressional Members and their staffs, involving controversial and complex issues.

Mr. Osborne has received numerous awards in recognition of his outstanding efforts to include Superior Civilian Service Awards, the Meritorious Civilian Service Award and he has been nominated for the prestigious Decoration for Exceptional Civilian Service from the Secretary of the Army.

Bill Osborne is a tremendous assist not only to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, but also to Members of Congressional Delegations throughout the Southeast and his country. I want to sincerely wish Bill and his wife, Fran, every success in the future.

I thank the gentleman from California.

Mr. Speaker, today is a great day for the residents of Fort Pierce, Florida, and the Treasure Coast. Over two decades ago, the late Congressman Tom Lewis and his district director, Ann Decker, started the long process of making the courthouse a reality. The countless hours of dedication and work by those who followed him are now being rewarded with the construction of a new courthouse. I was greatly honored that one of my first official events as Congressman was to participate in the historic groundbreaking for this building.

I introduced this legislation to honor the distinguished life and career of the late Florida Supreme Court chief justice, Alto Lee Adams, by naming the new courthouse in his memory.

This courthouse will fill a vital role for the city of Fort Pierce, bringing much-needed jobs and investment to the community with this greatly needed new Federal courthouse. It is only fitting that the courthouse be named in honor of a man who himself gave so much to his community and the legal community of the State of Florida.

Chief Justice Alto Lee Adams attended the University of Florida College of Law in 1921. As was mentioned, he practiced law in Fort Pierce. He was appointed circuit court judge for St. Lucie County and was appointed to the State supreme court in 1940 by then-Governor Fred P. Cone. He served as a justice on the Florida supreme court from 1940 to 1951 and chief justice from 1949 to 1951.

Chief Justice Adams believed it was important to give back to his community. His service to St. Lucie County served as an example to his children and to those who knew him. Mr. Speaker, I can say, having spoken to some of the Adams family before I took the floor today, they are thrilled that this bill is being brought up as we speak.

In addition to his distinguished legal career, Justice Adams started a successful cattle ranch named the Adams Ranch in St. Lucie County-- they just had their bull auction last week--and it is still run by the Adams family.

Judge Adams set a standard for integrity and community service that lives on today, and I believe it's only fitting that this new courthouse is named in his honor. I am proud to sponsor this bill, and I ask my colleagues for their support in naming this courthouse.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 817 I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the life of Roy Rood, who passed away on October 8. Roy was a longtime resident and the founding father of my hometown of Tequesta, Florida.

Mr. Rood was born in 1918 on a farm in Jupiter, Florida, one of 11 children. He spent his early years on the family dairy farm, where he learned the value of a hard day's work and love for working outside. The first Tequesta post office was located on his family's property and was placed on maps of that era as a settlement called ``Rood.''

Following the attack on Pearl Harbor, Roy joined the Navy, where he served with honor in World War II as an aviation mechanic on an aircraft carrier that was part of the fleet that participated in the Battle of Guam. Following the war, Roy returned home to Florida, where he started a landscaping business that continues today.

Over the past 60 years, Roy Rood helped found American Legion Post 271, the local Kiwanis Club, the First Bank of Jupiter, and the Jupiter Christian School.

The residents of Tequesta are lucky to call Roy Rood our founding father. He will be missed.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 792, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present I would have voted ``yea.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the people of Taiwan as they celebrate their Centennial National Day. The day is also to commemorate the 1911 Wuchang Uprising, a milestone of China's development and a new chapter which led to the end of the Qing Dynasty.

This National Day allows the people of Taiwan to gather together and celebrate their shared heritage, and provide them the unique opportunity to honor their past and present culture and achievements. Following President Ma Ying-jeou's annual address, there will be a parade of floats from 10 counties and various government agencies. A series of cultural activities and exhibitions, including a nationwide design competition and movie festival will be featured along with a traditional puppet display.

The historic ties between the United States and Taiwan run deep, and they continue to unite us. I hope our nation will continue its efforts to promote educational and cultural exchanges so that younger generations may enjoy and continue the legacy of our important relationship.

I look forward working together to deepen our relationship, and I wish the families celebrating this occasion a safe and happy holiday.

Mr. Speaker, on Friday, Palestinian Authority President Abbas plans to seek recognition of a Palestinian state before the United Nations. A vote in the U.N. will bypass bilateral peace negotiations between Israel and the P.A. and will threaten the success of a mutual solution.

Leaders in the United States, Israel, and the P.A. have long worked toward a mutual solution, and the P.A., seeking unilateral recognition from the U.N. is not only harmful to these efforts, but also to the security of the State of Israel.

It's also important to note that the action coincides with a period of extreme volatility between Israel and their Middle Eastern neighbors. Israel's alliance with Turkey has continued to unravel over the past year, and its peace agreement with Egypt is in jeopardy.

The Palestinian Authority's move to circumvent direct talks with Israel will undermine Israel's right to exist. I call for President Abbas to withdraw his request for a U.N. vote and instead finally agree to sit down at the negotiating table with the U.S. and Israel to develop a mutual, legitimate solution.

Mr. Speaker, it is with great honor that I rise to pay tribute to a true American hero, Dan Aguilar of Palm City, Florida. Dan has been awarded the Silver Plaque International Alpine Solidarity Award, given to individuals who have risked their lives to save others in dangerous mountain accidents. Dan is a well-known mountain rescuer who deserves both the admiration and praise of this body.

Dan grew up in Dallas, Texas, where he resided for 18 years. After graduating from Crozier Tech High School, he served in the U.S. Army for four years. Upon returning to the United States, he moved to Vail where he began his renowned career in mountain rescue. Dan's love for the mountains has seen him travel the globe and conquer the most dangerous alpine trails in the world. What's more, his mountain climbing adventures have taken him to Mexico, Ecuador, Alaska and Argentina. But it is not his accomplishments as a climber or mountain hiker that have earned him this prestigious award, but rather it is his courage as a mountain rescuer.

In the early 1980s Dan suffered the crushing loss of a dear friend that completely changed his view of climbing. For some time he was unable to even fathom climbing again, but this experience eventually drove him to the line of work that has made him a living legend. Through his dedication and perseverance he became a valuable member of the Vail Mountain Rescue Group for nearly 2 decades.

For Dan, saving the life of another seemed to come naturally. In fact, the Silver Plaque International Alpine Solidarity Award is not the first time he has received recognition for his devotion to helping others. He has also been awarded the Mountain Rescue Association's Outstanding Individual Service Award. In all, it is estimated that Dan has been involved in around 500 different rescue missions, since his involvement with Mountain Rescue. His advanced rescue skills have also been utilized in rescues on Mt. Rainier in Washington, the Pamirs in Russia, and the Aconcogua in South America.

Dan's commitment and incredible compassion to help others have earned him a legendary reputation and the admiration of people around the world. According to Tim Cochrane, a fellow member of Mountain Rescue, ``Aguilar is the first volunteer rescuer in North America to win the award.''

Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the State of Florida and U.S. Congress, I congratulate Dan on this distinguished and well-deserved award. He is an American who deserves our gratitude and praise.

Dan, your community, State, and Nation are proud of you!