Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall Nos. 697 and 698, I was delayed and unable to vote. Had I been present I would have voted ``no'' on rollcall No. 697 and ``aye'' on rollcall No. 698.

Authorizing the Clerk to Correct Engrossment

Senator Kay Hagan: Thank you and good morning. If I wasn't

here, and I was actually back in my home state of North

Carolina on a Wednesday morning, I would attend a prayer

breakfast with a small group of women at my church. And I

have asked them today to pray for you and to lift all of you

up in prayer and to pray for peace. I do want to read from

the Old Testament, Isaiah chapter 40 verses 28 through 31.

``Have you not known? Have you not heard? The Lord is the

everlasting God, the creator of the ends of the earth. He

does not faint or grow weary. His understanding is

unsearchable. He gives power to the faint and strengthens the

powerless. Even youth will faint and be weary and the young

will fall exhausted but those who wait for the Lord shall

renew their strength. They shall mount up with wings like

eagles. They shall run and not be weary and they shall walk

and not faint.''

Congressman Miller: Sometimes as busy people we say that we

are buried in our work. Our next presenter knows the literal

meaning of the term. Along with 32 other miners, he endured

69 days half a mile under ground in a Chilean mine. The world

marveled at the technological achievement of their rescue.

Congresswoman Kirkpatrick: Our guest today brings us the

story of how God protected and encouraged them until their

rescue. Please welcome the man who led those miners in

worship and prayer throughout those dark and fearful days,

Jose Enriquez. Translating for Jose will be the chaplain of

the President of Chile, Reverend Alfred Cooper. [Applause]

[Mr. Jose Enriquez]

Mr. Cooper translating for Mr. Enriquez: First of all,

greeting to President Obama and all present, government

authorities and church authorities. My name is Jose Enriquez.

I thank God for being in this place. I have come to give a

testimony of what God did in that mine of San Jose. On the

5th of August, we were surprised by a rock fall and an

explosion, and we had to organize ourselves down there to

face this crisis. We had many difficulties, but we were able

to overcome them. Organizing ourselves into a democratic

community, we voted 50 plus one for every major decision and

we went along with it. We realized, however, that we only had

one alternative and that was God, himself. We were different

creeds and different churches, so I got them all in a circle

and began to teach the miners how to pray with participative

prayer. We made sure that each one, in his own way, could

pray and participate. And as we prayed, we began to know the

presence and blessing of God among us down in the mine. We

were strengthened and our spirits were revived.

We had some serious problems. We had very little food--for

three days only, we had no water and we had to sort out the

jobs like repairing the electrics and the piping. So we

decided that, unless we prayed and God did a miracle, there

would be no way out. And that became our daily hope and

comfort as we began to pray--that He would do miracles among

us and solve our problems.

The first 17 days were the worst, with no communication

with the outside world. But we kept preaching the word of

God. And God was with us and among us and he began to deal

with us and teach and speak to us. He began to reconcile the

inevitable tensions that occur in such a situation. And so in

this democratic, not secular democratic but praying

democratic, community God began to reconcile us together. And

so we would get the one with the other and force them to

shake their hands and to become reconciled and we maintained

the peace and the community spirit down there that way. And

then we had the great miracle where the second drill, the

first one had passed us by, glanced off a rock and broke in

at exactly the right level, at exactly the right angle to

enable our rescue. And then of course you know the rest of

the story--52 days of surviving down there but now in touch

with the outside world. At last we were able to eat. We got

our beef steaks that we wanted, and we got all our

medication. And then, this was the greatest blessing of all

that came down that small pipe, small Bibles, because those

fitted. They came down, and I then had a Bible to speak from,

and I could preach more powerfully and profoundly from the

very word of God. There was one Bible for each man with his

name on it.

There is so much to tell you, dear folk. And finally that

day came when we were rescued. And even before we went up, I

encouraged them to get on their knees and pray one final

time. Some wanted to dive into the capsule and get out

immediately. But we said, no, hold it, wait one moment: we're

going to pray first. We had that final time of prayer

together. I said to them, brethren, we pray to our God in a

desperate situation, and he answered our prayers. So now we

wish to pray and thank God and bless God for all the help

from all over the world. We blessed the capsule and thanked

God for the work that so many had put into it--the many

authorities, politicians, our very President who committed

himself sparing no expense or effort to make sure we were

found. And then came that great day when we began to come up

one by one--which it seems all of you saw, and the whole

world was watching. We felt the best way to express what we

were feeling was to wear this t-shirt that we sent to be

made, it said: ``Thank you God. Thank you Lord Jesus. Thank

you for having saved us.'' And then we came out to hug our

wives and loved ones. Glory to God!

Congresswoman Kirkpatrick: We know of course that the

President does not run the government alone but draws the

greatest talent from the 50 states to serve the people. Tom

Vilsack previously served as the Governor of the State of

Iowa and serves our nation as our Secretary of Agriculture.

Congressman Miller: To pray for the leaders of the world,

Secretary Tom Vilsack.

Secretary Tom Vilsack: Let us bow our heads and pray to the

God who comforts us and watches over us. For our world

leaders, our prayer is for them to remember and to live the

beatitudes. Blessed are the leaders who are poor in spirit

for theirs is the kingdom of heaven. Blessed are the leaders

who are meek, for they and their people shall posses the

earth. Blessed are the leaders who mourn, for they and their

people shall be comforted. Blessed are the leaders who hunger

and thirst for justice, for they and their people shall be

satisfied. Blessed are the leaders who are merciful, for they

and their people shall obtain mercy. Blessed are the leaders

who are clean of heart, for they and their people shall see

God. And blessed are the leaders who are peacemakers, for

they and their people shall be called Children of God.

Blessed are the leaders who suffer persecution for justice

sake, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven. Let us pray that

our world leaders do justice, love kindness and walk the path

according to God's plan. Amen.

Congresswoman Kirkpatrick: There may be no more potent or

effective force on good earth than the power of story. There

are those precious few gifted artists who can shape the ideas

in histories of the human struggle into the form that touches

and transforms us all. We have one such artist among us this

morning. Randall Wallace has touched audiences around the

world with his cinematic masterpieces such as ``We Were

Soldiers,'' ``Secretariat,'' my favorite, ``Pearl Harbor''

and especially, ``Braveheart,'' a tribute to his Scottish

ancestor, William Wallace. We look forward to receiving the

power of the words he has chosen to share with us this

morning. Please welcome Randall Wallace.

Mr. Randall Wallace: Mr. President, Mrs. Obama, Mr. Vice

President, members of Congress, international guests, all of

you here today, it is a great honor for me to be with you.

An introduction like this sort of covers me with Hollywood

glory, and whenever I am introduced that way I feel compelled

to tell a story that relates exactly how glamorous I am. My

first big break in Hollywood was when I was promoted to

producer and sent to take over a television show that was in

trouble. The ratings were low, the actors were unhappy, and

unhappiest of all was a gorgeous young woman who had been

Miss Universe. So, before I went out to meet them, I bought

what I considered the essential piece of equipment for a

producer: a strap to hold my sunglasses so they could dangle

around my neck. My plan was to walk up, say, ``Hi, I'm

Randall Wallace,'' snap off my sunglasses, make my point, and

then close with a dramatic flourish by putting them on again.

I figured the actors would love it. So I walked up to Miss

Universe, said ``Hi, I'm Randall Wallace,'' snapped off my

glasses and said, ``I know you're not happy. You haven't been

given enough to do. But I'm in charge of this show now--the

writing, directing, everything. So if you have any problems,

you come to me.'' And I snapped my sunglasses back on. But

while I was talking, I'd been fidgeting with my tie, and I

did this.

There is no fallback position from that position. A friend

told me it may have been the first time in Hollywood history

that an actress wondered whom she would have to seduce to get

out of a job.

Movies are arguably America's most influential export--but

guys like me don't seem the obvious choice to speak at a

prayer breakfast. When I was directing ``We Were Soldiers''

at Fort Benning, Georgia, I found time one weekend to drive

over to visit former President Carter's Sunday lesson at his

home church in Plains. I asked a friend who knew the Carters

to save me a seat, and when I arrived, I found the seat was

right next to Rosalyn Carter. Apparently, Mrs. Carter,

gracious Southern lady that she is, had wanted to be sure I

felt at home. I sat down and Mr. Carter asked the

congregation to open their pew Bibles to a passage that was

the subject of his lesson. Now I grew up in Baptist churches,

and I was familiar with the passage he was about to read. So

I took the chance to open the hymn book to check on the

lyrics of a hymn I was thinking of using in our film. And as

I was thumbing through the hymn book, Mrs. Carter touched my

arm and handed me her Bible, opened to the right passage. And

I realized in that moment that Mrs. Carter had logically

assumed

that since I was a Hollywood director I didn't know the

difference between a hymn book and a Bible. And I have to

admit, it did strike me that I had the perfect chance to

steal Mrs. Carter's Bible. If anyone stopped me, I'd just

say, ``She gave it to me.'' It was worn with use, marked with

joy and tears. Imagine what it would bring on e-bay.

To prepare myself, I've studied the speeches of those who

have preceded me in this position in past years. The causes

they've advocated from this podium are vital, and I have no

way to compete with their accomplishments or their eloquence.

So this morning I'd like to do something that as nearly as I

can tell is unprecedented for a keynote address at the

National Prayer Breakfast. I'd like to speak about . . .

prayer. I'm not a philosopher. I'm not a preacher. I'm a

storyteller. Like Jesus. As nearly as I can tell, that is my

only similarity to Him. Actually there is one other: I too

have cried out, ``My God, why have you forsaken me.''

I've lived a life of tremendous privilege. I grew up just

down the road from here, in Lynchburg, Virginia. Virginians

are a righteous and sober people, too proud to tell a lie.

But I was born in Tennessee. My father was born in Lizard

Lick, Tennessee. The men in my father's family are Alton,

Elton, Dalton, Lymon, Gleaman, Herman, Thurman and Clyde.

They called Clyde, Pete. Nobody knew why.

When I was a child I suffered from attacks of asthma so

severe that I couldn't breathe at all, and I had the real

sense that if I panicked I would die. Grandmother would hold

me in her lap all night long, and she would sing to me, and

tell me stories from her childhood, and from the Bible. And

she would look into my eyes, and she would smile. And I don't

look at blue eyes to this day without seeing hers.

And as I grew older, I found her looking at me in a

different way--quietly, distantly, and so I asked her,

``Grandmother, why are you looking at me that way?'' And she

answered, ``You remind me of Rufe.'' Rufe was her husband--my

grandfather--who had died before I was born. Of course, I

became hungry to learn about him, so I asked my father to

tell me what he was like, and he told me this story.

During the Great Depression my grandfather, who was a

farmer, decided to open a country store to feed his family.

There was no wood to be had and no money to buy any, but he

found a wrecked riverboat on the shore of the Tennessee

River, and he salvaged that wood to build his store. But he

needed cash to buy the stock to sell, and there was one place

in town that paid cash for labor, and that was the plant

where they froze huge blocks of ice, and men would pick them

up with tongs and sling them up onto wagons so they could

sell them to farmers whose homes had no electricity. My

grandfather was the only white man who did that job; all the

rest were what they then called ``colored'' men.

So his first day on the job, the supervisor, another white

man, approached my grandfather and told him, ``Listen, I just

want you to know, all I got on this crew besides you is a

bunch of . . . Colored men, and I cuss at `em to make `em

work. So if I forget myself and I call you an S.O.B., don't

pay me no mind, I don't mean nothin' by it, that's just the

way I am.'' And my grandfather looked at the supervisor and

said, ``I understand completely. And I just want you to know

that if you do forget yourself, and you call me an S.O.B.,

and I hit you in the face with a claw hammer, don't pay me no

mind, I don't mean nothin' by it, that's just the way I am.''

And in that one story I understood exactly who my

grandfather was, and exactly who I wanted to be. And I

understood the power of a story.

My father, and mother, worked extremely hard so that I

could go to school. He was a salesman who loved his

customers, and he rose in his company, with promotion after

promotion . . . until one day the family-owned company he

had worked for twenty years was sold to a professional

investment group who knew nothing about the business itself

but who believed it would prosper if they fired all the old

guys and hired cheaper younger guys. My father was one of the

old guys. He was 38. I've always wondered if my father lived

his life hungry for the father he'd never had; his own father

had died before he was born--the grandfather he'd told me

about was my mother's father, not his. He had never been

fired from anything. The strongest and best man I ever knew,

and he had a complete breakdown.

While he was in the hospital, my sister and I were farmed

out to relatives. For awhile, we lived in a house that had no

indoor plumbing. When I told my father about that he said,

``Well . . . rich people have a canopy over their beds--and

we've got a can of pee under ours.'' And that's when I knew

my daddy would be all right.

The last sale he had made for his old company was for

90,000 dollars--in 1961. The first sale he made when he

started his next job was for 90 cents. Working one hundred

hours a week, he clawed his way back to success. God Bless

America. And God bless my Daddy. He told me that I could go

to college anywhere--something he and my mother had never

gotten a chance to do. I chose the most expensive place

possible--and he was so proud. But when I graduated, I didn't

want to be a doctor or a lawyer, I wanted to be a writer. I

wanted to tell the kind of stories that would let a young man

know who his ancestors were, and who he might be. The kind of

story that might keep a child alive through a long night.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 601 and 602, I was delayed and unable to vote. Had I been present I would have voted ``aye'' on both.

Madam Speaker, on rollcall No. 600, I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``yea.''

The lady before me said it so eloquently and so simply: Why do we want to spend a whole lot of money? We're already in a crisis now. Huge debates about how are we going to control Federal spending. And here we find this proposal to drop another $25 million to do a study that we have already done before.

First of all, we could save a lot of money in this, and that's a good idea. Of course, why is it that somebody would make the proposal after we've done a study that's supposed to work for 17 years and want to do it all over again? Well, it's because they didn't like the results of the first study, quite obviously.

What did the study prioritize? Well, it prioritized, first of all, protecting

human lives. That's not exactly a bad prioritization. And that's in the context of flood control. But it also talked about their livelihoods, not just their lives but their livelihoods. And that was the transportation part. That should also be a part of what the Missouri River is about. And of course the water supply and the safety. Now the proposal is to make the priorities on something else.

Look, the Missouri River is a great resource. We need to use it that way and prioritize our people, their property, and their prosperity.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor the service of Dr. John McGuire.

Since November 1996, Dr. McGuire has served as President of St. Charles Community College, St. Peters, Missouri. Prior to his current presidency, he served as President of Owensboro Community College in Owensboro, Kentucky.

Dr. McGuire has served over forty years in community colleges in five states, including chief academic and student services officer at Community College of Aurora, Colorado, and assistant chief academic officer at Parkersburg Community College in Parkersburg, West Virginia. He has exercised leadership in institutional research and effectiveness, student success, and statewide policies to strengthen transfer opportunities for community college students.

Dr. McGuire serves on numerous civic and educational boards, including Past President of the Executive Committee of the Economic Development Council in St. Charles County, former President of the Missouri Community College Association Presidents and Chancellors Council, member, board member of the St. Louis Regional Commerce and Growth Association (RCGA), and has served on the Barnes-Jewish St. Peters and Progress West Hospital Advisory Board. He has also previously served on the American Association of Community College Presidents Academy Executive Committee, the FOCUS St. Louis Board, and past president of the St. Peters Chamber of Commerce.

I rise today to express my sincere gratitude to Dr. John McGuire and the many years of service he has dedicated to Missouri and to the education of so many. I wish him the best in his retirement and ask my colleagues to join me in thanking him for his years of service.

Mr. Chair, on rollcall No. 448, had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mr. Ronald Shelley of Boeing Defense, Space & Security. Ron will be retiring this coming June after more than thirty years with the company.

In his more than three decades with Boeing, Ron has held a number of leadership positions; with ever increasing responsibilities. During the development and first flight of the C-17 Globemaster III, today the backbone of our air mobility, Ron served as General Manager, Supplier Management, in Long Beach, California.

Ron also served as program manager for the F/A-18 Super Hornet, responsible for directing, planning, organizing, leading and controlling development, production and cost support for all Super Hornet programs in St. Louis. Ron clearly knows his business, because the Super Hornet program has consistently delivered aircraft to the United States Navy on time and on budget.

Additionally, Shelley held a number of director-level Supplier Management and Procurement positions in Naval Systems, Production Operations and Phantom Works--the advanced prototyping arm of Boeing Defense, Space & Security.

Today, Ron Shelley serves as vice president of Global Sourcing for The Boeing Company and as vice president of Supplier Management for Boeing Defense, Space & Security, based in St. Louis. He leads an organization of more than 2,800 employees in 30 States and 10 countries; and he's responsible for annual purchases of nearly $17 billion in products and services. Clearly you don't just put anyone in charge of spending $17 billion!

My staff and I have had the honor of working with Ron on a number of occasions over the past decade. Through his work on C-17 and Super Hornet, he has contributed much to our national security. His fellow citizens are more secure today because of the contributions Ron Shelley made to these vital defense programs.

Thank you, Ron. I wish you all the best in your retirement and God's blessing.

I rise in opposition to the amendment.

Mr. Chairman, the question involves the Avondale shipyard-- which used to be Northrop Grumman, it is now a part of Huntington--and there are essentially three possibilities of what might happen to the shipyard. One possibility is that we leave the shipyard there to build ships for the Navy. The trouble is that we don't have enough demand or we don't have enough money to buy the ships that we would need to keep that shipyard busy, which then means that we are trying to build ships at a lot of locations where we don't have enough ships to get any economic benefits.

The result of that is it is going to cost the taxpayer and the Navy a whole lot more money to keep a shipyard open when we don't really have work for the shipyard. So that's one possibility. You could force it to stay open; it's going to cost the most to the taxpayer.

Another possibility is that the shipyard, because of the many people that work there, could be retooled and redesigned to use it for building other kinds of things other than Navy ships. That would preserve the jobs. And the Navy is willing to invest some money--as long as it is less than what it would cost to keep the thing open. They're willing to invest some money to help with that transition so those people won't be unemployed.

The other thing that could be done is you could just close the shipyard down. Now, what this amendment does is it says, well, we're not going to allow the Navy to invest in retooling. So it's sort of like a dare because it's really begging to have the whole shipyard close down and not used for anything else. So it's kind of a gamble to try to say, well, we're going to save $310 million and gamble that that shipyard is going to stay open. Because the possibility is if you say the Navy is not going to invest the money, they may just say, well, close it down. Then you would lose all those jobs. So this amendment may do the exact opposite of what you are trying to do.

I would now yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wittman).

How much time do I have remaining?

The basic point is that the fact that this is going to save $310 million is not true. What this in fact is going to do is to force a solution that will be more expensive for the government and not very good for the employees down at Avondale either.

So I have to say along with the Navy and the leadership on the committee that we cannot really support this amendment. I think that the gentleman had very good intentions of what he's trying to accomplish, but I don't believe it's going to work the way he thinks it's going to. It's going to probably force a closure and a whole lot of layoffs that unnecessarily would not have to happen if we don't pass this amendment. So I'm going to oppose it.

I yield back the balance of my time.

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

I have to say that I understand the importance of trying to control spending in this government, and I am very much thankful to the gentleman from Arizona to be wanting to do that.

The concern that we have is that when you take a look at where we are in terms of our military right now, we have some very big problems. Just standing back away from it and looking at it for a little bit, if you say, how many troops do we have, how many ships do we have, how many aircraft do we have, and you compare where we are today with where we were 20 years ago, in 1990, we have half of what we had in 1990.

So we have reduced our military in half. We have the same number of ships today as what we had in 1916.

Now, one of the reasons for paying attention to earmarks was so that we would pay more attention to doing a good job of oversight. This committee has really worked hard at oversight. We have identified areas where we think the Pentagon was wrong, where the President was wrong, and we have taken that money out. Now we are going to be punished for taking it out by having it taken away.

The point of the matter is we are redirecting the money, but we are allowing a certain amount of flexibility. The places where this money has got to be spent are, first, ballistic and cruise missile defense. This is a very, very big deal for the Navy. The Chinese have very high- speed cruise missiles. We have to be able to defend against them.

Navy shipbuilding, we have already talked about that. We have the same number of ships as we had in 1916.

As the chairman of the Seapower Subcommittee, we have taken a good look at LHA-7, and this is an absolutely essential ship. Nobody is arguing that point. It is a large deck amphib assault.

What has happened, though, is that the Marine Corps decided that they wanted to put a well deck in the original design, which has caused some additional negotiations and slowed things down a little bit. But the point of this amendment is to strip $150 million away from this project. That is a very big problem. It is a big problem because next year we have got an aircraft carrier to build, a nuclear-powered submarine, and a destroyer, and this money needs to come from the budget this year in order to keep the LHA-7 on track.

As we have talked about earlier this evening, we are in a bad position in terms of number of ships in the Navy. LHA-7 is critical, it is important, and stripping $150 million does tend to threaten the project, or at least push it off, and then you have to try and fund it in a year when we don't have the funds because we are building a bunch of other ships. So what this does is it guarantees that LHA-7 is going to proceed, but we have to allow enough time for the negotiations.

No, I don't yield.

The point of the matter is that LHA-7 has to go forward, and we have to make sure that we have the

funding. As soon as the negotiations are finished between the Navy and the contractor, then we can move ahead on this project. So the $150 million is important. The exact timing of when it is going to be spent is in question, but the necessity to have the money is not in doubt. That is why we oppose this amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of H.R. 1540, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2012.

In review of the portions of the President's budget request relevant to Seapower and Projection Forces, the subcommittee this year held hearings on the Navy shipbuilding plan and on amphibious warfare, along with briefings on the replacement for the Ohio class ballistic missile submarine, the Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle, and the new long-range strike bomber.

Being a maritime nation, we must support our troops with supplies delivered by sea and by air, while maintaining the global reach to do so. Protection of the sea lanes of communication, projection of credible combat power, forward presence, and humanitarian assistance are all capabilities supplied by forces for which the subcommittee has oversight and where it must focus.

This bill provides for a multiyear procurement of Arleigh Burke class destroyers. It funds 10 ships which were in the President's budget request. It also has provisions which would inject some discipline in programs just starting, such as the amphibious vehicle which will replace the cancelled Expeditionary Fighting Vehicle and the Navy's unmanned carrier-launched airborne surveillance and strike system.

I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

I wish to thank the members of the subcommittee, particularly my ranking member, the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McIntyre).

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to be removed as a cosponsor from H.R. 1380.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to honor Mr. John Van Gels of Boeing Defense, Space & Security. John will be retiring this month after nearly 50 years serving in various positions in the aerospace and defense industry in St. Louis and southern California.

John Van Gels is the quintessential American story. In 1963, when he first joined the McDonnell Aircraft Company in St. Louis he took a job as an hourly employee making $2.13. Over the years he did his job, worked hard and was rewarded with increased responsibility on the shop floor--holding positions as assistant foreman, foreman, and general foreman on numerous programs.

In 1981, John exchanged his blue collar for a white one and was named Production Manager for McDonnell's Tomahawk cruise missile program. Five years later he was named the Director of Production for the Tomahawk and in 1989 was named vice president of Production Centers-- Missile Company.

Most folks would consider nearly 30 years with one company a great career, but not John Van Gels. In 1990, John accepted the position of vice president of Product Center Operations at Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach, California. There he oversaw production of the MD-80, MD-90, MD-11 and Trunkliner programs.

In 1997, he returned to St. Louis to assume the position of VP/GM Production Operations and General Services for McDonnell Douglas Aerospace. He will finish his career as Senior Site Executive for Boeing Defense, Space & Security--responsible for the day-to-day St. Louis operations.

While his career took him from the floor to the executive office building, John never forgot his time on the floor or the value of the men and women who produce the world's most capable military and commercial aircraft. Throughout his career, John was actively involved in labor negotiations, helping more than once to bridge the gap between blue collar and white.

I've had the pleasure of meeting John on more than one occasion during my time in Congress. His knowledge and dedication to ``team'' have been a help to both myself and my staff. You don't ``replace'' a man with the knowledge, experience and character of John Van Gels, you simply adapt, move on and hope to honor his commitment to the industry he poured his professional life into.

Thank you, John. I wish you God's speed and blessing in your retirement.

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 175, my flight was delayed due to inclement weather. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 176, my flight was delayed due to inclement weather. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''