Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize National Public Lands Day on September 20, 2003. On this day, volunteers around the nation will be lending their hands to our public lands--improving the nation's habitats, removing invasive species, building trails, planting trees, and contributing an invaluable service to the nation. This event promotes the stewardship of our publicly held natural and cultural resources.

To provide further information, I attach the enclosed statement.

Volunteers Spruce Up National Mall Saturday, September 20, 2003

Volunteers around the nation will be lending their hands to

our public lands on the 10th annual National Public Lands

Day--Saturday, September 20, 2003. This is the largest

nationwide effort to improve and enhance those places where

Americans go for recreation and to enjoy the outdoors. It is

expected that around 80,000 volunteers will be working at 500

locations and in every state.

This year the focus is on improving and preserving the

nation's habitats--the forests, mountains, prairies, plains,

rivers, wetlands, and urban streams that are home to a rich

diversity of animals, plants and birds. Many of the projects

will involve invasives, a growing threat to our public lands.

Volunteers will also repair trails, build bridges, plant

trees, protect cultural sites, restore aging facilities and

much more.

Here in our nation's capital volunteers will be working

from one end of The National Mall to the other--the Lincoln

Memorial to the Ulysses S. Grant Memorial. Projects include

repairing the walkway around Constitution Gardens; trimming

cherry trees around the Tidal Basin; painting benches and

railings at Hains Point; and weeding, planting and mulching

flowerbeds at the George Mason Monument, Department of the

Interior and the Benjamin Banneker Park. Kids will build bat

houses for a National Park Service research project and help

install duck ramps in the lake at Constitution Gardens.

This is a unique opportunity for Members and staffs to join

others who are giving up a Saturday to care for our special

place, The National Mall.

National Public Lands Day is a project of the National

Environmental Education & Training Foundation in partnership

with nine federal agencies, numerous state land authorities

and private organizations. Toyota Motor Sales USA is the

national corporate sponsor.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlemen for yielding me this time.

I want to quickly make a comment in reference to the gentleman from Montana (Mr. Rehberg) and praise him for all his efforts to deal with this issue I think in a very comprehensive, competent way.

I come to the floor on this issue from a slightly different perspective. I am from Maryland, not from out West. I have lived and worked in the Rocky Mountains. I have ridden snowmobiles in National Forest in the Rocky Mountains. I have had some experience in the wintertime in pretty cold places, spent the winter of 1966 in a tent 250 miles north of the Arctic Circle in Norwood, a number of experiences.

But what I want to do is make a comparison between the Chesapeake Bay and Yellowstone Park. The Chesapeake Bay is a beautiful estuary. We are working hard to restore it. But the Chesapeake Bay in some sense like Yellowstone is being loved to death by too many people. In the Chesapeake Bay, it is not snowmobiles. It is motorboats.

In the Chesapeake, if we want to bring back the oysters, which are 99 percent less than what they were 100 years ago; if we want to bring the crabs, which are 50 percent of what they were 50 years ago; if we want to bring back the rockfish, they need certain areas to spawn, they need certain areas to survive. And, yes, we can have motorboats in the Chesapeake Bay, but what we are trying to do is to limit those motorboat activities to certain areas where they do not have interaction with spawning areas or critical wildlife habitat.

In the Chesapeake Bay we are looking at this issue, this motorboat human activity issue, with three things: respect, responsibility, and dignity for the bounty of God's creation. And in this issue of snowmobiles in Yellowstone, there are still about I am told, and correct me if I am wrong, in the three-State area, 13,000 miles of access that will not be impacted at all from snowmobiles. What we are talking about here is about 180 miles of snowmobile access right in Yellowstone.

So it is a difference of opinion. I think people on both sides of the issue, the gentleman from Montana, the gentleman from New Jersey, both gentlemen are trying to do what they feel is right for the pristine beauty of certain wonderful places in the United States; and I will tell the Members to vote their conscience on this issue.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time. It is my understanding, and I usually do not get involved in something that happens in Utah or Colorado, being from the State of Maryland, but having taken some time to look at this, the new rule that opens up some other possibilities for right of ways was promulgated January 6, 2003, this year. The first memorandum of understanding that grew out of that rule, it is my understanding, happened in Utah when Utah developed its memorandum of understanding to implement this new rule which has been different from what we have been used to for the past 100 years. It actually did a pretty good job in its promulgation of the rule, because it protected wilderness areas, wilderness study areas, refuges, national parks, not monuments, but in the Taylor amendment, it does protect monuments.

What the second-degree amendment attempts to do is limit the ability to file these disclaimers on Federal land that is designated wilderness, national parks, refuges, and national monuments to use the example that Utah has used in this new rulemaking.

I am one that favors strongly, for a number of reasons, the protection of private property rights and the protection of our wilderness areas and our Federal lands. What I would like to do with the gentleman from Utah, if we can agree on the second-degree amendment with the gentleman from North Carolina, is pass the second-degree amendment to the Udall amendment. Once all of these lands are protected for at least a year, we can work through the process of trying to make the rule that was promulgated in January a little bit more open-ended.

I do not think there are any backroom deals that went through as far as this rulemaking was concerned. I have talked to the Forest Service, I have talked to a number of people. I talked today to the Governor of Utah about this process, calling from Moscow. I feel strongly that the second-degree amendment protects the kinds of lands that we want to protect for the kinds of things that we are considering here, which is right of way, which are roads, which are private property problems.

Even within the Utah MOU, told to me by the governor of Utah today, not one cow path, not one horse path, not one area that is not and has not been a road will ever become a road on any Federal land. So I urge a vote on the gentleman from North Carolina's amendment.

Amendment Offered by Mr. Matheson as a Substitute for Amendment No. 1

Offered by Mr. Udall of Colorado

Mr. Chairman, I rise to engage the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Taylor), the chairman of the subcommittee, in a colloquy regarding the eradication and control of exotic, invasive nutria through a partnership of Federal and State agencies and private organizations in Maryland.

I would like to thank the chairman for including funding for the Maryland Nutria Eradication and Control Act within the national wildlife refuge operations and maintenance budget. In the Chesapeake Bay, both the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and the Chesapeake Bay field office are partners in the Nutria Eradication and Control Project management team with other Federal agencies, the State of Maryland, and private landowners around the refuge. It covers over 60,000 acres of marsh, and it has been a 5-year program.

Funds made available for this project have been authorized by Public Laws 105-322 and 108-16, which specify that, ``In the State of Maryland, the Secretary shall require that the program consist of management, research, and public education activities carried out in accordance with the document published by the United States Fish and Wildlife Service entitled 'Eradication Strategies for Nutria in the Chesapeake and Delaware Bay Watersheds,''' dated March 2002.

This strategy describes a comprehensive approach to nutria eradication on the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and the surrounding areas. We have lost over 7,000 acres of marshland up to this point from this invasive species.

In the past few years, Maryland nutria eradication funds were appropriated and administered through the Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program, and this ensured that the project funding was not limited to use on the refuge. The refuge receives separate funds directly for use on the refuge system.

The interior appropriations bill we are considering today includes generous funds for the current nutria project for this year, but the funds are entirely within the budget of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. It is vital that funds be applied to the entire project so that USDA trappers can be compensated and the Fish and Wildlife Service can procure and maintain the necessary equipment and facilities on the refuge and continue to support the Nutria Eradication and Control Project.

Is it the understanding of the chairman that the service, through the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, should continue to support the Nutria Eradication and Control Project in Maryland, as authorized, throughout the 60,000 acres impacted by nutria as well as on the refuge itself?

I yield to the gentleman from North Carolina.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for his attention to this issue.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the time.

Sometimes in these debates one issue gets mixed up with another issue, and I think that is what is happening here. I rise in support of this rule.

I also want to make a comment to the previous speaker that this Congress, Republican majority, with the help of the Democratic minority, is increasing the amount of money that is going to a myriad of veterans programs all over the country. So when those veterans come back from Iraq, they will not only see us waving the flag in strong appreciation of the work they did in enhancing freedom in Iraq, but they will receive the kind of benefits that the previous speaker mentioned about going to college on the GI bill.

I went to college on the GI bill. I bought a house with the GI bill, and those kinds of services are for the veterans of today. These young people are children of democracy, and they deserve what we received many, many years ago in our service to our country, but we are here today to discuss the rule and the issue of flag burning amendment.

I want to ask the question, what does it mean to be patriotic? How do we protect the flag and honor the flag? We honor the flag by being good parents, by being good citizens, by being good neighbors, by understanding and respecting the rule of law and understanding the thread of tolerance that weaves its way through the quilt of democracy.

I rise today opposing the underlying bill. How many times have we seen the flag burned in the United States? We see it burned in China, we see it burned in Iraq, we see it burned in Syria. We see it burned all over the country, but we do not see it burned here. If a person burns the flag in China, they put them in jail. If they burn the flag in Iran, they probably cut their head off. If they burn the flag in Cuba, they go to jail. Do we want to follow that example and that precedent? I do not think so.

Our present Constitution blends together the best of our heart and our minds. Our present Constitution understands our responsibility to respect the rule of law, but it shows such humanity in the tolerance that we have for different opinions in this country.

Do we want to respect and honor those who lost their lives in defense of this Nation? The last verse of that wonderfully beautiful poem ``In Flanders Fields'' says, ``If you break faith with us who die, we shall not sleep, though poppies grow in Flanders Field.'' How do you break faith with those who defended the country? You stop having tolerance. You start following the precedent of countries like the former Iraq or Cuba or China.

We want to raise the flag in honor of those people who have protected the flag. Be a good citizen, a good neighbor, a good American.

Mr. Chairman, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1588 and urge my colleagues to vote for it. I also rise, if I may, in support of all the young men and women who are serving in our Armed Forces. I also want to say that the gentleman from California (Chairman Hunter); the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton), ranking member; the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton); and certainly the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett) have brought a fine bill to the House floor.

I want to speak briefly to the environmental provisions in the bill here this afternoon. Some slightly unknown provision called the Sikes Act has been in effect since 1960 and has provided a means for our military to conserve fish and wildlife with the fish and wildlife agencies on 25 million acres of military land across this country; and for the most part they have done quite well, in some circumstances a magnificent job. It has been on this floor today alleged that we are going to change or degrade or reduce the effectiveness of the Endangered Species Act. This is not true. There is a provision in this bill that authorizes military facilities with cooperation of the Fish and Wildlife Service, with National Marine Fishery Service, and the fish and game agencies

of the States to create what is called a Natural Resource Management plan, and what that Natural Resource Management plan does, it can or it may replace ESA's critical habitat designation. This Integrated Natural Resource Management plan is actually more effective than the critical habitat as described in the Endangered Species Act because it is a holistic approach, it is an ecosystem approach to those problems which threaten an endangered species. It also integrates what the military does with off-site private land. This is an integrated approach. It is an approach that can be extremely effective and the criteria on which these Integrated Natural Resource Management plans are based are very specific criteria to ensure the protection and recovery of species. So this legislation improves the Endangered Species Act.

It has also been said that it is going to reduce the effectiveness of the Marine Mammal Protection Act under certain circumstances. This also is not true, and I understand the disagreement as to the language when one deals with what is harassing a marine mammal. What we have done across the board is to hold many hearings with the Department of Defense, with Fish and Wildlife, with the National Marine Fishery Service, with university scientists from as far afield as Hawaii, where we visited to look at marine mammals; Woodshole in Massachusetts, which we visited again to look at the problems with marine mammals.

When we implemented the change of the definition, we had two things in mind: the effectiveness of military training, which is critical; and enhanced protection for marine mammals and an understanding of how we as human beings coordinate our activities with the world's oceans. We took into consideration noise. We took into consideration resonance, decibels, variations in sonar. So in places in this legislation we are improving the process of understanding human activity in the ocean by protecting marine mammals and improving the quality of training for our military. So we have improved ESA. We have improved the Marine Mammal Protection Act. We have improved the Sikes Act provision which protects conservation on 25 million acres of land, and we have improved America's ability to train young people that go into harm's way. And I urge support on H.R. 1588.

I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time.

Mr. Speaker, I want to thank all of those who participated in the process of the healthy forests reform legislation for doing a pretty good job. I think we are moving in the right direction. In this piece of legislation today we are moving significantly in the right direction. It does not go the whole way that all of us want to do, but we move significantly in the right direction. For those Members who will support the Miller amendment and oppose the underlying bill, the democratic process is a never-ending story, so we will always have opportunities to do what we want to do in this constant management regime.

The other thing is, we do something, I think, that is extraordinary in the underlying bill and that is that it deals with the hydrology, or the watershed approach, to our national forests. This kind of approach takes out the fragmentation piece by piece, the politically charged process of dealing with what we need to deal with, and that is healthy forests. What were they like 10 years ago? They were not very well 10 years ago. What were they like 20 years ago? Healthy forests did not exist 20 years ago. But what were they like 500 years ago? It was a natural process. What we are trying to do in this legislation is go through a process to get back to restore the prodigious bounty of nature and our healthy forests.

Mr. Speaker, as the author of H.R. 274, I am pleased the House is considering this legislation to expand the boundaries of the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, which is located in my congressional district.

Garrett Island, which consists of approximately 180 acres, was the site of Maryland's second settlement in the 1600's. It is the only rocky island in the tidal waters of the Chesapeake Bay system, and it is a vital link between the Susquehanna River and the Bay. It also provides habitat to 44 different bird species, including eagles, Common Loons, Tundra Swans and 14 species of ducks.

I have visited Garrett Island and there is no question that its rich history, geographic location and wildlife resource values make it an excellent candidate for inclusion within the National Wildlife Refuge system. As a nation, we can ill afford to allow unique places, like Garrett Island, to be lost forever.

While I am disappointed that the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has not endorsed this idea, I was pleased to hear the agency testify that, ``Given the Island's historic and archaeological values, its recreational opportunities, and its environmental education and interpretation potential, a concerted effort should be put forth to provide long-term protection and management of the island.'' This is the goal of H.R. 274.

The Cecil Land Trust has done everything it can to protect this important property, contributing $150,000 toward the purchase of the island. Based on our hearing, Federal acquisition costs will be less than $400,000, and little, if any, maintenance or personnel will be required in the future. The Chesapeake Bay Foundation had it right when it wrote that steps must be taken to ``ensure protection of this largely unspoiled, historical and ecological gem.''

I would urge my Colleagues to vote ``aye'' on H.R. 274! This is an important and necessary inclusion in our National Wildlife Refuge system, which celebrated its 100th birthday last month. This is exactly the type of place that Theodore Roosevelt had in mind when this unique system of public lands was created.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding me time.

This is not the perfect bill. There are very few bills that come before the House that are perfect. I think there is a recognition that within a 20-year time frame the administration would like to relieve ourselves of the burden of fossil fuels, become independent of foreign sources of energy, and protect and improve the environment by burning hydrogen, fusion and other alternative sources.

There are a number of things in this bill that we can work on and improve, and this is not our only shot at it. Our shot at the energy resources of this country and energy policy comes on an annual basis.

The things that are good about this bill are, they do promote, maybe not as much as all of us want to, but they do promote alternative sources of fuel. One of the most exciting is fusion, which is not necessarily 50 years away, but maybe within a couple of decades.

Another interim fuel source or another interim mechanism is hybrid vehicles.

Another powerful, positive reachable energy source of fuel is hydrogen. Hydrogen is probably the most pervasive element in the universe. It is one of the most pervasive elements on the planet. And if we can do what the administration wants to do, perfect this technology, when you burn hydrogen, it is a source of independence for the United States; when you burn hydrogen, the exhaust is water.

So there are a number of alternatives, there are a number of positive things about this bill.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and I appreciate the effort on the part of the gentlewoman from New Mexico to limit the impact on the Arctic slope in oil drilling. I am here to speak now on another perspective.

First of all, I think when we use this oil up, we will be more dependent on foreign oil. Once this is gone, a tiny fraction of the world's oil and when it is gone, we will be more dependent on oil from the Middle East and other places.

But I am speaking on behalf of the effects of the human environment here, and I want to quote an Arctic elder. ``The land can tell us everything we want to know.'' We might think of an Eskimo saying that. ``The only problem is that it does not have a voice. We cannot hear it. But the spirit of the land is always there.''

Many parts of our country that depend on hunting and fishing also have agriculture and forestry. This is one of the few places on the planet where there is no agriculture, there is no forestry. The entire culture, nutritionally and economically, depends on whales, polar bears, seals, and caribou. They depend on what the pristine wilderness gives them. Even a 2,000-acre imprint would cause, because of the sound and because of the disturbance, the migration routes of all these things to change. This one 2,000 acres in this narrow area has a great impact, a difficult impact on the culture of this community.

So I am speaking on behalf of the culture of the northern Native Alaskans.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 273) to provide for the eradication and control of nutria in Maryland and Louisiana.

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

Madam Speaker, I am pleased to offer this measure along with the gentleman from Louisiana (Mr. Tauzin). The fundamental goal of this legislation is to effectively address the growing problem of nutria that are destroying thousands of acres of essential wetland habitat. It also reauthorizes a 1998 law that created a pilot nutria program in Maryland at Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge, Fishing Bay Wildlife Management Area, and Tudor farms.

Since that time, Federal, State and local partners have worked together in Maryland to develop a nutria eradication strategy and to test restoration methods on the damaged marsh. Louisiana is working on a nutria control strategy and monitoring marsh recovery. These are both carefully crafted proposals which will systematically address nutria population control and marsh damage. They represent the culmination of scientific understanding about nutria population, dynamics and marsh impacts.

Because of the nutria's incredible ability to proliferate, partnerships in both States must act aggressively to avoid population increases that could nullify previous effort and investment of public and private resources. Both Maryland and Louisiana are serious about nutria control and have contributed several million in non-Federal funds, and both are committed to providing models for the control of nutria in the 14 other States in which they are found. Full commitment from both Federal and State partners is needed to complete these models over the next 5 years.

This semi-aquatic, nonnative rodent has no natural predators in Maryland, and they have consumed nearly half of the marsh lands on Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. These marshes are vital to the survival of millions of migratory waterfowl, bold and golden eagles, and neotropical songbirds. The remaining acreage of Blackwater is in serious peril. Unless nutria are stopped, they will continue to destroy wetlands in Blackwater and other refuges on the Delmarva peninsula, and marshlands along the Atlantic coast and the Gulf of Mexico.

H.R. 273 will authorize Public Law 105-322, and it will implement the next step in the process, which is the eradication of nutria in Maryland as well as the restoration of damaged wetlands. In their testimony, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service stated: ``We recognize the need to continue cooperative efforts to eradicate nutria in the Chesapeake Bay region and will continue as a key Federal member of the nutria eradication partnership.''

In addition, H.R. 273 authorizes money to alleviate the tremendous problems that nutria have caused in Louisiana. According to the Louisiana Department of Wildlife and Fisheries, these pesky rodents have damaged or destroyed over 100,000 acres of wetlands in their State.

Under the terms of the bill, the Secretary of the Interior will undertake steps to control or eradicate nutria in the two states and together with the National Invasive Species Council develop a long-term nutria control and eradication program.

Madam Speaker, H.R. 273 will help to solve serious problems facing Maryland's Eastern Shore and Louisiana's marshlands. It will serve as a model for other States that may face the prospect of fighting against an invading population of nutria. I urge Members to vote for H.R. 273.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Madam Speaker, I thank the leadership on the other side of the aisle for moving this legislation. We appreciate the cooperation we have had from the Democrats, as well as staff on both sides. I urge Members to vote for this very important piece of legislation.

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

Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 733) to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to acquire the McLoughlin House National Historic Site in Oregon City, Oregon, and to administer the site as a unit of the National Park System, and for other purposes.

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

Madam Speaker, H.R. 733, introduced by the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Hooley) authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to acquire the McLoughlin House National Historic Site in Oregon City, Oregon, and to administer it as part of the existing Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, which has already been established as a unit of the National Park System.

I would like to say after reading some of the information before us here this morning that I want to thank the gentlewoman from Oregon (Ms. Hooley) for bringing this to the floor's attention and that the ``father of Oregon,'' as it is stated here, Dr. John McLoughlin from the Hudson Bay Company, provided many weary travelers with the goods and the resources and the comfort that they needed as they traversed this great continent.

H.R. 733, introduced by Congresswoman Darlene Hooley, authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to acquire the McLoughlin House National Historic Site in Oregon City, Oregon, and to administer it as part of the existing Fort Vancouver National Historic Site, which has already been established as a Unit of the National Park System. The McLoughlin House, an Affiliated Area of the National Park System, has long been the beneficiary of a close working relationship between the managing entity, the McLoughlin Memorial Association, and its partner, the National Park Service. The McLoughlin Memorial Association is no longer in a position to be able to support and manage the National Historic Site. Consequently, this bill will enable the National Park Service to essentially exchange roles with the association to preserve this important historical treasure, while continuing to use the association as a resource. At the same time, the bill does not create a new park unit, but rather allows the House to be administered as part of an existing unit.

The McLoughlin House National Historic Site is named for Dr. John McLoughlin, the ``Father of Oregon'' who established the famous British Hudson Bay Company in Vancouver, Washington in 1825. Dr. McLoughlin supplied American pioneers with the goods they needed to settle and survive at their new home in Oregon.

The House passed the same language in this bill during the 107th Congress as part of a larger package. The bill still enjoys the same broad support that it did last Congress and I urge my colleagues to support it.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote for H.R. 733. I thank my friend, the gentlewoman from the Virgin Islands (Mrs. Christensen), on the other side and the staff on both sides of the aisle, and certainly the two Members that spoke here this morning.

I urge passage of this important piece of legislation.

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

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 289.

This proposal has been the subject of two congressional hearings. We have heard from a diverse group of witnesses testifying in strong support of expanding the boundaries of these two existing refuges. One of those witnesses is the director of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources. In his statement, Mr. Samuel Speck noted that this measure will ``ensure an abundance of ecological and conservation improvements that will truly benefit this ``Great Lake'' and the millions of Americans who benefit from it''.

The fundamental goal of H.R. 289 is to conserve the wetland resources of the western basin of Lake Erie. This shallow body of water is, according to the U.S. Geological Survey, the 11th largest fresh water lake in the world and it has the most productive fishing habitat in all of the Great Lakes.

While sadly more than 98 percent of the original wetlands in Northwest Ohio have been lost, the remaining 12,500 acres provide irreplaceable habitat for 325 species of birds, 300 species of plants and 43 fish species. In fact, the western basin is used by 70 percent of the black ducks that migrate in the Mississippi flyway and it provides nesting habit for 79 breeding pairs of bald eagles.

The remaining wetlands should be protected and the most effective way to accomplish that goal is to include available habitat within the National Wildlife Refuge System.

Furthermore, it is my hope that by expanding these refuges, all interested parties will work together to devise a comprehensive strategy to protect and restore the physical and biological integrity of the Lake Erie western basin ecosystem.

I urge an ``aye'' vote and I compliment my colleagues Marcy Kaptur and John Dingell for proposing this innovative legislation.

Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the time.

I would like to tell my colleagues on actually both sides of the aisle that none of us are rubber stamps over here. We are actual human beings and Members of Congress. We do not rubber-stamp what the President wants or does not want us to do.

I would also like to say to my colleagues, and, if I may, to the people of Iraq, we will stay with you to not only feed you in the interim.

announcement by the chairman pro tempore

Mr. Chairman, to give a man a fish, he eats a day. To teach a man how to fish, he will eat for the rest of his life, and the oil in Iraq will be used to improve the quality of life for people in Iraq.

Mr. Chairman, this has been one of the best, well-planned operations in the history of the world. It has been open for debate for months and months and months; and, yes, we support our troops in Iraq. The United States Government's major role is to defend this country, but also to ensure that those in need are taken care of: those that are hungry, the sick, the infirm, the homeless, and the children. And what is the government's role as far as the economy is concerned? The government's role as far as the economy is to create a structure that stimulates economic productivity in the private sector. Support the resolution.

Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time, and I thank him and the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton), my good friend, the two of them, for bringing this resolution to the floor.

We all remember the words of Thomas Jefferson: ``We hold these truths to be self-evident that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights and among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.''

And we remember the words of Abraham Lincoln: ``With malice toward none, with charity for all, let us work together to bind up the Nation's wounds.''

And another century passing by, we remember Martin Luther King, Jr. and his dream that little children will not

be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character.

This great Nation of ours has seen periods of great joy, wretched despair, and great sacrifice. And still, we come, children of democracy, again here tonight to find our place in history. Our young men and women, once again on the front lines of history, once again in anticipation of great joy, although for some there will be wretched despair because some will not come home, we give them our praise and support for the sacrifice that they are now enduring as they bear the greatest burden of preserving and restoring freedom during this present crisis.

Mr. Speaker, I would like to close with a very familiar poem by a Canadian soldier during World War I who did not make it home:

``In Flanders fields the poppies blow

Between the crosses, row by row

That mark our place; and in the sky

The larks, still bravely singing, fly

Scarce heard amid the guns below.

``We are the Dead. Short days ago

We lived, felt dawn, saw sunset glow,

Loved and were loved, and now we lie

In Flanders fields.''

Those who lie in Flanders fields said,

``Take up our quarrel with the foe:

To you from failing hands we throw

The torch; be yours to hold it high.

If ye break faith with us who die

We shall not sleep, though poppies grow

In Flanders fields.''

The Americans in the Middle East are bearing the burden of the present crisis, and we come here tonight to mix and to mingle and to speak and to have differences, but the unity of this Congress, the unity of this Nation will linger for decades to come.

I stand here tonight to support the resolution.