Floor Statements

Offered By: Mr. Cole of Oklahoma

Amendment No. 2: Add at the end the following new title:

Offered By: Mr. Cole of Oklahoma

Amendment No. 3: Page 341, line 11, after ``title.'' insert

the following: ``The Federal Government shall not withhold

funding from any Indian tribe or tribal organization or

entity, based solely on the Indian tribe's citizenship

requirements.''.

Page 344, beginning line 4, insert the following:

(5) Sense of congress.--It is the sense of Congress that--

(A) the right of self-government flows from the inherent

sovereignty of Indian tribes and nations;

(B) an Indian tribe's sovereignty includes the power to

protect tribal self-government and to control internal

relations;

(C) the United States recognizes a special government-to-

government relationship with Indian tribes, including the

right of the tribes to self-governance, as reflected in the

Constitution, treaties, Federal statutes, and the course of

dealings of the United States with Indian tribes;

(D) it is the policy of the United States to maintain and

improve its unique and continuing relationship with, and

responsibility to, Indian tribes;

(E) Congress should improve and perpetuate the government-

to-government relationship between Indian tribes and the

United States and strengthen tribal control over Federal

funding and program management;

(F) the courts have consistently recognized that the

authority to determine questions of its own citizenship is a

fundamental power of an Indian tribe;

(G) the Supreme Court stated in Pueblo v. Martinez that,

``[a] tribe's right to define its own membership for tribal

purposes has long been recognized as central to its existence

as an independent political community''; and

(H) the power of an Indian tribe to determine questions of

its own citizenship derives from the character of an Indian

tribe as a distinct political entity, therefore Indian tribes

have the exclusive right to determine eligibility for

enrollment of their citizenship.

Offered By: Mr. Cole of Oklahoma

Amendment No. 4: Page 341, line 11, after ``title.'' insert

the following: ``The Federal Government shall not withhold

funding from any Indian tribe or tribal organization or

entity, based solely on the Indian tribe's citizenship

requirements.''.

Madam Speaker, it is my privilege today to rise in recognition of an organization that has done tremendous work in helping bring jobs and prosperity to central Oklahoma. The Ada Jobs Foundation is celebrating ten years of fostering economic and career development in the Ada area. Working closely with local and state and tribal government, the Ada Jobs Foundation has helped make Ada's unemployment rate among the state's lowest.

Focusing on three main goals, the Ada Jobs Foundation strives to assist businesses in retaining their existing jobs, recruiting new firms to relocate to Ada, and encouraging and supporting new start-up firms. It has a very impressive and successful track record of working closely with the Ada Area Chamber of Commerce, the Ada Industrial Development Corporation, the city of Ada, the Ponotoc County Commissioners, East Central University, the Science and Natural Resources Foundation, and the Chickasaw Nation.

Madam Speaker, this non-profit organization seeks to reach out and build lasting connections between hard-working Oklahomans and the communities in which they live. This mutually beneficial relationship is a testament to the positive changes that can occur when business and government work together for the economic wellbeing of their community. With over 19,000 people currently employed in the Ada area, it currently has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the state of Oklahoma. I am proud to represent the city of Ada, and I am especially proud of the initiative taken by Ada's civic leaders to create and continue a program as successful as the Ada Jobs Foundation. Creating a diverse pool of

jobs, focusing on developing local infrastructure, and strategic planning sessions to create long-term, sustainable progress in the Ada community is something that generations of citizens will surely benefit from for years to come.

It is my honor to stand here before you and celebrate an organization which has been the source of great pride and progress in central Oklahoma. I congratulate the Ada Jobs Foundation on ten years of bringing economic development to their community, and wish them many more years of success.

I thank my good friend from Michigan for yielding. And I thank him even more for conducting what is an important and enlightening educational experience for the people of our country about the reality of high fuel prices and what is behind it. You do take a little ribbing occasionally if you're from Oklahoma. But we think that is generally jealousy, except from our friends from Texas, who have a very similar view of the world to us.

But let me talk a little if I can about what the current state of play is in energy prices. Today as you have had up on your sign, the national average price for a gallon of gasoline is $4.04. That is something I never thought I would live to see, and frankly, no American should have ever lived to see. You can now buy a barrel of light sweet crude for July delivery at $131.31, a nice round number, nice even alliterative number. Currently in my State, Oklahoma's price at the pump, and we are producers, in some ways we will we feel it even worse because we have been producing for over 100 years much more than we consume and exporting it to the rest of the country. And we are delighted to do that. But it is pretty tough when people in Oklahoma, a producing State that sacrificed, that frankly are delighted to have exploration and production, but they are paying $3.83 a gallon.

In January of 2007 when this majority, this Democrat majority took office, the price per gallon was $2.08 a gallon. That is a rise of $1.75, an increase of over 80 percent.

The country as a whole has experienced very much the same thing. The average price since the Democratic majority has come into power has gone up $1.67, an increase of 71 percent.

Now, that is not what our friends on the other side of the aisle expected to happen at all. As a matter of fact, let me read you a few quotes of what they told America as they came into the majority our energy future would be.

Our distinguished Speaker, Speaker Pelosi, said on April 18, 2006, ``Democrats have a commonsense plan to help bring down the skyrocketing gas prices.'' She said a few days later, ``The Democrats have a plan to lower gas prices.''

Our distinguished Majority Leader Steny Hoyer said on the 4th of April, 2005, ``Democrats believe that we can do more for the American people who are struggling to deal with high gas prices.'' I would love to ``struggle'' to pay $2.08 a gallon. It would be a nice fight to have.

Our good friend and distinguished whip of the majority party, Jim Clyburn, said, ``House Democrats have a plan to help curb rising prices.'' That is on the 26th of July, 2006. If this is the plan, we want them to go back to the drawing board and reconsider where they are at.

Four times since they have taken the majority they have voted to increase energy taxes; to increase energy taxes. Now, even people that don't like the energy industry can usually say, well, gosh, if you increase the tax, won't they pass that along to us in the price? It is an incredible record.

Now, every single energy bill the majority wants to reach the floor has reached the floor. Most of them have passed this body. Some of them have gone all the way to the President and been signed. As I recall, I don't remember anybody who actually vetoed any energy legislation that has actually reached the President's desk. So what we are seeing really is the product of the majority's legislative agenda.

What haven't they let come to the floor? What commonsense solutions that most Americans support haven't come to the floor? I am just going to list a few of them, because, as my colleague knows, there are many of them.

Our colleague from Texas, Mac Thornberry, has a wonderful bill, the No More Excuses Energy Act, H.R. 3089, that literally covers the gambit of things we ought to be doing. Not just oil and gas, but nuclear, solar and wind. It incentivizes production. That is the lesson that our friends on the other side have forgotten, that supply is really important to cost. They simply seem to have no conception of that.

There is a wonderful bill by Mr. Pitts of Pennsylvania, H.R. 2279, that will expedite the construction of new refining capacity on closed military installations in the United States. These are installations that have been set aside. They are safe. They are secure. Why in the world wouldn't we want to refine the product? If we have to import it, we at least ought to get the value-added portion of refining it. It is a crime that we should ever import a refined product.

Our good friend Mr. Blunt, H.R. 2493, has legislation that removes the fuel blend requirements and government mandates that contribute to unaffordable gas prices. We shouldn't have dozens and dozens of blends of gasoline. A few is enough.

Our good friend Mrs. Myrick has H.R. 6108, Outer Continental Shelf Exploration, which grants coastal states the authority to grant exploration up to 100 miles from their coastlines and allows States to share in that revenue. A commonsense solution.

None of this legislation, and dozens more, have been allowed to come to the floor. My friends on the other side love to blame Republicans, President Bush

and the energy industry for these kinds of problems.

I just want to conclude quickly with a story. I do represent a district that is one of the top 20 energy producers in the United States, so we are more than doing our part. I convened about a year ago, actually before this extraordinary rise in prices, a group of independent energy people that have spent a lifetime trying to provide energy to this country.

I asked them, ``Give me your suggestions. What can we do to increase the supply and stabilize and hopefully lower the price of a gallon of gasoline or heating fuel or electricity?'' They thought, and they had a lot of great solutions.

They said, ``Let's go drill in ANWR, in Alaska. That would be a wonderful thing.'' By the way, my good friend Mr. Young has a superb piece of legislation on that, H.R. 6107, that would actually allow us to drill there and invest some of the severance revenue in alternative energy supplies so we could both meet an immediate need and start looking for alternatives.

But they suggested that. I said, ``Well, you know, I am for that. I voted for that. The Republican majority passed it four times in the House and couldn't get it through the Senate because of Democratic obstruction, so we probably can't get it done.''

Then they said, ``Let's do more exploration and production offshore. We have seen Katrina. That has worked well in terms of no spillage. We know we had 25 percent of our supply in the Gulf of Mexico. We could do more.'' I said, ``Well, I am for that, but we can't do that either.''

Then they asked about additional refining capacity, and they asked about expedited permitting on non-park Federal lands. They just went through a litany of things. Alternative energy. Each one I would say yes, I am for that, but we can't get that through, particularly a Democratic Congress.

Finally at the end of this in frustration, one of my good friends said, ``Well, why don't you go back and ask those other Members of Congress who are opposing these measures just how rich they want foreign countries to be? Just how much they want to pay the people overseas that we are importing this petroleum from, or this gas, when we could actually do the production here? Because they are exporting thousands of jobs, billions of dollars, and they are jeopardizing our security.''

Then the guy added in fairness, he said, ``By the way, we are all here giving you suggestions about how to lower the price of the product that we produce.''

We have had a shameful exercise, in my opinion, in the last several days, particularly on the Senate side, where people that work to solve America's energy problems are brought in and interrogated as if they are the source of the problems, and the only frankly justification for that is the high prices. But when those people respond, they say, ``If you would just do the things we have asked you to do year after year after year, we could solve this problem.''

So I am sorry I went on. You have been very generous with your time, and I appreciate that very much. But it is a frustrating problem when the solutions are sitting here waiting to be acted upon by this House and none of them are being dealt with at all.

Madam Speaker, under Clause 9 of Rule XXI, I submit for publication in the Congressional Record a list of earmarks which I have obtained in H.R. 5658, the Fiscal Year 2009 National Defense Authorization Act.

(1) Project Name: UML UAV/UAS Test Facility.

Requesting Member: Congressman Tom Cole.

Bill Number: H.R. 5658.

Account: RDT&E, Defensewide, Line 193.

Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Oklahoma State University-- University Multispectral Laboratories (OSU-UML).

Address of Requesting Entity: 1000 South Pine (Research East), P.O. Box 1902, Ponca City, OK 74602.

Description of Request: Provide an earmark of $8,000,000 to establish a National Unmanned Aerial Vehicles/System (UAV/S) Test Facility adjacent to restricted Fort Sill, Oklahoma airspace on behalf of the United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) Approximately $4,400,000 (or 55%) is for material, engineering support, range equipment and renovations, along with $3,600,000 (or 45%) is for the creation of new, high-technology jobs consisting of technicians, engineers and scientists. The USSOCOM Program Manager, Special Applications For Contingencies (SAFC), requires greater access to test ranges where less restrictive UAV/S test flights may occur. Established by the OSU University Multispectral Laboratories (UML), this facility provides unique opportunity to conduct UAV/S flight testing while remaining within restricted airspace where UAV flights are exempt from FAA regulations. A wide variety of UAV/S testing, fully coordinated with Army authorities, becomes possible for all government entities This facility also supports the Army Fires Center of Excellence and fosters a positive economic impact on the surrounding areas.

(2) Project Name: Joint Fires & Effects Training System (JFETS).

Requesting Member: Congressman Tom Cole.

Bill Number: H.R. 5658.

Account: Army, RDT&E, Line 38.

Legal Name of Requesting Entity: The Institute for Creative Technologies.

Address of Requesting Entity: 13274 Fiji Way, Marina del Rey, CA 90292, USA.

Description of Request: Provides $6.5 million for the Joint Fires and Effects Training System (JFETS). JFETS at Fort Sill, Oklahoma, a collaborative effort between the University of Southern California Institute for Creative Technologies and the United States Army Field Artillery School, has grown from a concept demonstration to three fully functional prototype training installations since its inception in 2003. Short of combat, JFETS creates a realistic, stressful, and demanding experience for soldiers undergoing training in the synchronization of fires and effects. To date, more 5,000 soldiers have been trained in the JFETS Urban Terrain Module, the Open Terrain Module, and the Close Air Support Module.

Joint Fires Observation skills are perishable. The capability to refresh these skills frequently, in a time and cost effective manner, and across the U.S. Army, USAF, and U.S. Navy, will make the U.S. military a more integrated and effective fighting force. The enhancement of the Joint Fires Effects Trainer System (JFETS) will provide this.

Budget and timeline for FY 09 JFETS request.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Let me say to the gentleman that coming back to the Armed Services Committee from Rules is as close to a resurrection experience that I expect to have on this side of the veil.

I am particularly pleased to rise in support of this legislation,

I thank the gentleman.

Mr. Chairman, I am particularly disappointed that we did not deal in a serious fashion in my opinion with Mr. Saxton's amendment, which would have set a baseline of 4 percent of our GNP for future military funding. That is something we know we need to do. We know in this committee on a bipartisan basis that we spend too little. That is a mistake we have made on both sides of the aisle. It is a bipartisan mistake.

We cut far too much during the 1990s. History teaches us and our chairman often appropriately lectures us that contingencies will come that we do not understand and do not anticipate, and we know from the bitter lessons of history that if we have not prepared through sustained investment in our military, we can never make up lost ground with hasty and ill-thought out appropriations in the short-term. I wish we had done that. I hope we will do that in the amendment process.

But, Mr. Chairman, the perfect cannot be the enemy of the good, and this bill is very, very good and is a product of genuine bipartisan cooperation. So I am very proud to support it and very proud to urge other Members of the Congress to vote for it.

Madam Speaker, it is my privilege today to rise in recognition of an outstanding young naval aviator from my district, Lt. Evan Scaggs of Sulphur, Oklahoma. As a dedicated member of the U.S. Navy, Lt. Scaggs was an integral part of one of the highest elevation rescue missions ever to occur in Iraq. Honored by his hometown newspaper, the Sulphur Times-Democrat, I felt that his story was so compelling and his commitment so sincere, that telling his story before you today would be but one small way of honoring such an outstanding young man.

Madam Speaker, when a group of American schoolteachers with Teachers Without Borders

disappeared from a hiking trip, Lt. Scaggs, a 64th ERQS pilot, was called in as the flight lead for the rescue. He and the rest of the crew prepared themselves in just 2 hours to go in search of the hikers. Traveling to the assumed location of the hikers, approximately 120 miles north of Balad Air Base, the rescue crew was able to locate the hikers on the side of a mountain sitting at an 80 degree angle. The teachers were stranded at an altitude of 4,700 feet where they were surrounded by treacherous terrain. Using careful maneuvering, the helicopter was able to fly close enough to allow the rescuers to retrieve the hikers safely. Their health was immediately checked and they were found to be in good condition despite being dehydrated and cold. If it were not for the actions of Lt. Scaggs and the rest of the rescue team, the two lost teachers would not have likely survived another night in the harsh conditions.

Lt. Scaggs and all members of America's Armed Forces deserve appreciation and respect from those they defend. That's why I am proud to stand before you today to honor Lt. Evan Scaggs from Sulphur, Oklahoma and thank him for his bravery and his servIce.

Madam Speaker, on Wednesday, April 30, 2008, I missed the first vote in a series of two votes. I missed rollcall votes Nos. 230, 231, 232, and 233.

Had I been present and voting, I would have voted as follows: Rollcall vote No. 230: ``aye'' (on agreeing to the Miller, George amendment to H.R. 5522); rollcall vote No. 231: ``aye'' (on agreeing to the Wilson (SC) amendment to H.R. 5522); rollcall vote No. 232: ``aye'' (on motion to recommit H.R. 5522 with instructions); rollcall vote No. 233: ``no'' (on final passage of H.R. 5522).

Madam Chairman, on Thursday, April 17, 2008, I missed the first vote in a series of two votes. I missed rollcall vote No. 203.

Had I been present and voting, I would have voted as follows:

Rollcall vote No. 203: ``aye'' (On agreeing to the Miller, George amendment to H.R. 5715).

Mr. Speaker, on Wednesday, March 5, 2008, I was unavoidably detained and missed rollcall vote No. 94.

Had I been present and voting, I would have voted as follows: Rollcall vote No. 94: ``nay'' (On Question of consideration on the Rule to provide for consideration of H.R. 1424--Paul Wellstone Mental Health and Addiction Equity Act of 2007).

Mr. Speaker, on Wednesday, March 5, 2008, I missed the first two votes in a series of four votes. I missed rollcall vote Nos. 95 and 96.

Had I been present and voting, I would have voted as follows: Rollcall vote No. 95: ``nay'' (On Calling the Previous Question on the Rule providing for H.R. 1424); rollcall vote No. 96: ``nay'' (On the Rule providing for the consideration of H.R. 1424).

Mr. Speaker, on Thursday, February 14, 2008, I was unavoidably detained and missed rollcall vote No. 61. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea'' (on motion to suspend the rules and agree to H. Res. 966, honoring African American inventors, past and present, for their leadership, courage, and significant contributions to our national competitiveness).

Mr. Speaker, I was unavoidably detained and missed rollcall vote No. 46. Had I been present, I would have voted ``nay'' on the motion to adjourn.

Madam Speaker, on Wednesday, January 16, 2008, I missed a vote.

I would have voted as follows: rollcall vote No. 3: ``yea,'' passage of H. Res. 912 under suspension of the rules, condemning the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto and reaffirming the commitment of the United States to assist the people of Pakistan in combating terrorist activity and promoting a free and democratic Pakistan.