Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 50, I was unavoidably detained and missed the rollcall vote. However, had I been present, I would have voted ``nay.''

I thank the gentleman.

Madam Speaker, it is indeed a privilege to rise on behalf of all Republicans in the House to honor Jack Kelliher. Jack, if you would please, while I'm speaking, I would ask for you to stand so that everyone in the House can see you.

I just want to say, Madam Speaker, briefly, when we honor you today, Jack, we honor all of the extraordinary support staff and professionals that serve the United States House of Representatives because you represent the finest of them through your 30 years of service. Most of us don't know, he is not just Jack Kelliher, he could be our Jack Bauer. He pulled, at one point as a Capitol police officer, a bomber from the gallery. He has a distinguished history of valor and patriotic service at the highest level. And he is the Keeper of the Mace and Assistant Sergeant at Arms.

Sitting next to him is Joyce Hamlett, who will take his place full time. She is my best friend here in the House. We love Joyce.

We are grateful for Jack. As was said, I have had more laughs in the last 15 years with Jack out on the balcony than just about anybody in the House. He is a good-natured man and a man of extraordinary commitment to our country. We will sorely miss him. In St. Augustine a number of years ago they bought a little place not on the beach but just off the beach. And it is where he goes to get away from us. And we won't follow you there, Jack. We want you and Nancy to enjoy those days and come back to see us. But know every minute how grateful every man and woman in the U.S. House of Representatives is for your service to our country, Jack. Thank you and we honor you.

Madam Speaker, nobody in east Tennessee hates the fact more than me that I'm going to vote ``yes'' today after voting ``no'' on Monday. Monday, I cast a blue collar vote for the American people, shook the foundations of Wall Street, demanding more accountability. But today, I'm going to cast a red, white and blue collar vote with my hand over my heart for this country because things are really bad and we don't have any choice. We're out of choices, our backs are up against the wall.

All week we fought for some improvements. And the increase in the FDIC limits from $100,000 to $250,000 is an improvement. The mark-to- market changes which will allow these mortgage-backed securities to move and free up liquidity will help a lot because small business people can't meet their payroll. This month, many of them in east Tennessee are not going to be able to meet their payroll. Pension funds in east Tennessee, thousands and tens of thousands of people I represent are upside down and it's happening fast. The cost of inaction is greater than the cost of this bill.

The $700 billion is a loan. Warren Buffet said Wednesday night it's a good business deal, he would take it, the government is going to get their money back. He knows more about this than anybody in this House, to be honest with you. He feels good about it. I don't like this at all. As a matter of fact, I hate it. It's disgusting that we would ever be brought to this floor to have to cast this vote, but we're out of options. We don't have a month to rewrite a new bill.

Things are critical. We don't even have gas at the stations in east Tennessee. Economic anxiety is hurting the families. I've been listening to small business people all week long and they said, thanks for voting ``no'' on Monday and thanks for standing up for us, but you've got to do something.

Congress has to act. We're out of options. Hold your hand over your heart and vote ``yes.''

Madam Speaker, this poem was written to honor a great American patriot, Sue Downes of Claiborne County, Tennessee.

When, In Hearts As Found

When, In Hearts As Found! Such things as so astounds . . .

When all else fails, as when courage comes to crest . .

. when heard in ones heart such sounds! Beating . . .

beating all in ones chest so now . . . Are but all

those heroes, magnificent's who so wear that crown . .

.

That crown worn of Hero so now . . . Who must so rebuild

their lives, someway . . . somehow . . . Whose greats

hearts do so astound, as does so one so Susan Downes!

While, marching off to war . . . Leaving behind, all that she

so loved and adored . . . But for her family and sweet

country tis of thee, as was her burden bore . . . who

could but ask for more?

With her two strong legs so lost . . . Is that not what

heaven is for? Paying such a great price, such a cost .

. . this her albatross . . . As she came home, and her

courageously fine heart would not so be lost!

For in this war . . . Unlike, none before . . . women have

all given so much more!

All at the ready . . . all out in front ever steady

while on the hunt, for our freedom to so insure . . .

But, in life . . . There are new battles, and new wars . . .

Only won by heart's of gold so fine and pure, that

which so touch us all with their sacrifice all the more

. . . Building day by day, passing heartache's way . .

. lifting up her head . . . This Magnificent Force . .

.

In Susan Downes . . . In what was lost, we so see in life . .

. against all odds, what so can be found! When Courage

Crests, as her faith does us so bless . . . when but

the best of all heart's so astounds . . .

Could we, would we? Ever find the such strength to go off to

war, then come back home and fight one more? To rebuild

where none lies left, without arms or legs . . . not to

cry or beg, to so touch our Lord!

Some people, are put upon this earth . . . So sent down from

our Lord above, to but teach us all above faith's true

fine worth! To Teach Us To Reach Us, To So Touch All

Our Hearts . . . inside all of our souls here first!

Against all odds! When, all the chips are down . . . only

where heart's of faith so found . . . In such courage

now, do our hearts astound . . . all in Heroes like Sue

Downes! In Hearts As Found!

Susan Downes was a gunner in Afghanistan. She is an F4 in The United States Army. She lost both her feet and part of her legs in an IED explosion. She is from Tazewell, Tennessee, is married to her husband Gabriel, and they have two wonderful children named Austin and Alexis.

Madam Speaker, today I rise to honor Mayor Tom Rowland of Cleveland, Tennessee, which is in my district. On Monday, September 8, 2008, at 3:05 p.m. Tom Rowland made history. He became the longest- serving mayor in the city of Cleveland's history with 17 years of service. He was elected Mayor of the City of Cleveland in 1991 and is currently serving his fifth term. His dedication and hard work have made Cleveland home to 11 Fortune 500 manufacturing companies as well as increasing the tourism economy tenfold.

Tom has served the City of Cleveland in many capacities with integrity and distinction, including: past president of the Tennessee Municipal League; selected Mayor of the Year, 2004 by the Tennessee Municipal League; member of two standing committees of the United States Conference of Mayors; past president of the East Tennessee Mayors Association; vice chairman of the Tennessee Advisory Commission on Intergovernmental Relations, the highest position you can hold and not be on the state legislature; cochairman of the Tennessee-Virginia AmTrak initiative; executive committee member of Southeast Tennessee Development District; on the Cleveland Utility Board and Cleveland/ Bradley Chamber of Commerce Economic Development Council; member of the Tennessee State Rail Advisory Commission; nd past Chairman of the Tennessee Vocational Rehabilitation Board.

Tom is a veteran of the United States Air Force, having retired recently as a Colonel from the Tennessee State Guard. He is the founder of Cleveland 100, an organization that assists surviving family members of officers, firemen and emergency personnel killed in the line of duty. He spearheaded a project to build Tennessee's first memorial to fallen police, fire and rescue personnel. The Emergency Services Memorial was dedicated in May of 2000. Tom is the only Mayor in Tennessee serving on the Homeland Security Council.

And if that isn't enough, Tom and his wonderful wife, Sandra, founded the Empty Stocking Fund, an annual drive that provides Christmas gifts each year to foster children in this community. In 2006 they consolidated the fund in cooperation with the Creating Christmas Memories Foundation.

Madam Speaker, Tom actually lived in many cities before settling in Cleveland in 1964. He was born in Florida, but his father worked for a hotel chain. The chain would buy new properties and it was his dad's job to move to those places and get the business up and going. The family moved about every 2 years. Tom came to Cleveland to work for WCLE radio station, of which he eventually became co-owner. In 1991, when a long-time member of the city commission retired, Tom was tapped to fIll out the unexpired term of 6 months. When the sitting mayor decided not to run for reelection, he encouraged Tom to seek the promotion. Madam Speaker, the rest, as they say, is history.

The City of Cleveland is very fortunate to have a man of this caliber at its helm. So today, I congratulate my friend, Mayor Tom Rowland, for this historic accomplishment.

Madam Speaker, I submit the following: As a leader on earmark reform among House Republicans, I am committed to honoring House Republican rules that provide for greater transparency. H.R. 2638 The Fiscal Year 2009 Continuing Resolution contains the following fun that I requested:

Requesting Member: Rep. Zach Wamp.

Account: Navy, RDT&E.

Legal Name Requesting Entity: University of Tennessee Chattanooga SimCenter.

Address: 701 E. MLK Blvd, Chattanooga, TN.

Description of Request: $3.5 million will provide for the continued operation of 100Kw Solid Oxide Fuel Cell and allow for the installation and operation of a second 100Kw Solid Oxide fuel cell. This project will continue to assist the Navy in researching and developing reliable technologies to convert hydrocarbon fuel and air into electricity to develop advanced electric propulsion and power technologies for future ships. This technology also has the potential to provide a commercially available clean, self contained power source.

Distribution of funding: Site Build--$250,000; System Procurement and Commission--$1.7 mil; System operation and 24/7 monitoring--$450,000; Multi unit performance testing--$100,000; Ethanol Operation--$500,000; UTC Simulation and Project Management--$500,000.

Requesting Member: Rep. Zach Wamp.

Account: FEMA, Predisaster Mitigation.

Legal Name Requesting Entity: City of Lake City.

Address: Lake City, TN 37769.

Description of Request: $418,000 will be matched with $125,000 local matching funds to remove sediment and debris from two miles of Coal Creek Channel in the City of Lake City, TN. This will prevent flooding and damage in a flood prone area. The plan will be adjusted accordingly for the funding level included in the final agreement.

Distribution of funding: 92 percent of the total funding will be used for construction and 8 percent will be used for Engineering.

Requesting Member: Rep. Zach Wamp.

Account: Milcon, Air National Guard.

Legal Name Requesting Entity: Tennessee National Guard.

Address: 3041 Sidco Drive, Nashville TN.

Description of Request: $8 million for the construction of the KC-135 Squadron Operations Facility at McGhee Tyson Air Base. As a result of the 2005 BRAC the 134th Air Refueling Wing gained 4 PAA KC-135 aircraft. The increase in aircraft and aircrews necessitates the need for an adequately sized facility. This project is in the President's Fiscal Year 2011 Future Year Defense Plan.

Requesting Member: Rep. Zach Wamp.

Account: Milcon, Army.

Legal Name Requesting Entity: Fort Campbell.

Address: Fort Campbell, KY.

Description of Request: $630,000 million for a Chapel Complex at Fort Campbell. The Installation's religious program operates in 7 chapels (three temporary) and 5 other facilities. The three 65-year old temporary chapels

are inadequate to meet the needs of an Army at War and the requirements of supporting Soldier and Family programs. This funding will be used to construct a new 32,000 square foot facility to support up to 1200 persons at a time, nearly doubling the permanent facility square footage on Fort Campbell. This Project is in the President's Fiscal Year 2013 Future Year Defense Plan.

Requesting Member: Rep. Zach Wamp.

Account: Milcon, Army.

Legal Name Requesting Entity: Fort Campbell.

Address: Fort Campbell, KY.

Description of Request: $10 mil Child Development Center, Fort Campbell, KY, Fort Campbell School Age Services (SAS) provides before and after school care for 385-425 children each school day and full day care on Soldier duty days when school is not in session. SAS operates in 5 separate sites: 4 elementary schools and the Taylor Youth Center. All five are accredited through the National After School Association. SAS faces severe restrictions on storage due to overcrowding in the elementary schools. SAS lost the use of one school due to lack of storage. FY 2008 request of $8,900,000 would help construct a new facility to support 210 children. The project is in the President's Future Year Defense Plan in FY 2012.

I thank the distinguished ranking member for the time and for the courtesies and instruction and help along the way that he has given me.

It is an honor to follow the majority leader. I know that he and the Speaker of the House, having both served on the Appropriations Committee, are frustrated, as we are, that we're only this far along on the appropriations process, with three of the 12 bills here as the fiscal year ends next week.

Having said that, I want to say that it is really awesome to be on the floor today participating in the discussion around the three bills that are included in this package because of the quality of the people involved in these three bills. The new majority, obviously, is punting on nine bills, but they're rightly bringing the three security-related bills to the floor before the fiscal year starts next week.

And the people involved here on our committee, when I think of the chairman of the full committee, Mr. Obey, and the ranking member of the full committee, Mr. Lewis of California, and Chairman Murtha on the Defense Committee, and former Chairman Young, the ranking member of the Defense Committee, and I think of David Price and Hal Rogers on Homeland Security, Chet Edwards, the chairman of the committee that I'm the ranking member on, to be included with these people, from both parties, is a real awesome honor for me because this is my first time at this level of being involved in this process.

But I've got to tell you that a far greater honor than being associated with any of you is this greatest honor of my adult life, outside of my family, in my professional life for sure, is to be the ranking member of the appropriations subcommittee that serves the people who serve us in uniform, past and present. What an unbelievable honor. What an emotional year Chairman Edwards and I had, hearing from the commands around the world and their military construction needs and the quality of life issues for every single man and woman in uniform, hearing from the families, the enlisted personnel, the officers.

And former Chairman Young is on our subcommittee, giving us great senior counsel. And then for our veteran communities to come before us and see us come together at record levels of funding for our men and women in uniform, both past and present, this is important. This is incredibly important. It is the highest honor I've had in my professional life to be associated with this responsibility.

But I am frustrated, as I know many are from both sides of the aisle, that the other nine bills effectively are kicked over 5 months into the next fiscal year at flat funding, level funding. And I do know that a fair assessment as the issue of energy became involved in this process, mid summer, one party advancing on the issue of energy, frankly, the other party in retreat on the issue of energy, and it definitely compounded this process because every one of these bills involves energy because energy is everything right now in this country. It's critically tied to the economic condition that we are in.

All I would say, in closing, is I appreciate the work at bringing these important security-related bills to the floor. I'm frustrated that the others are not here and that the entire process broke down. I mean, I could almost say, tongue in cheek, I'm so glad to be here because I have been on the Appropriations Committee for 12 years and I was beginning to wonder if we had an Appropriations Committee anymore, because we haven't met a whole lot lately. We haven't met enough lately.

I hope that the 111th Congress next year brings the committee to the regular order all the way through the process, because I really like that. I like it when we have a conference and we go in with the Senate and we sit

across the table and we hammer out a compromise and we fight for the priorities that we believe in versus what they believe in.

Let me also say, once again, it doesn't matter who's in the majority; the folks on the other side of the dome in the United States Senate are always a problem. They didn't move any of the bills in a timely manner. At least we were trying. And that's a problem. But I don't want to let everybody off the hook. It's up to the majorities in both bodies to move this in regular order. I know Chairman Obey is an institutionalist and would like to do that. Next year we better do it. No matter who wins the election, we better do it for the good of the taxpayer and for the good of the committee, the tradition. It's important that we reshape the priorities. We're the ones that have the hearings. Mr. Edwards and I spent over 100 hours together this year. I enjoyed every minute. I'm grateful.

I thank the gentlelady for the time.

I just come today because we need to remember that our moral authority as a Nation in the world doesn't come from our extraordinary free enterprise system or our capital markets or our military strength, as important as that is. Frankly, our moral authority comes when we uphold the rights of every human being in the world given to them by God, their Creator, and not by the government.

Frankly, the decline in human rights in the world over the last 20 years is one of the greatest challenges that we face. The combination of human rights violations around the world, and the intolerance of religious views, and the lack of religious freedom, are creating such a divide in the world that if we're not careful, we face a Crusades-like event. And the two go together. This is so appropriate.

I want to thank people like Frank Wolf. I miss Mr. Hyde and Mr. Lantos. What a privilege to serve with people who are here because they care so much about the rights of individuals, not just in this country where it's guaranteed under our Constitution, but everywhere.

I am maybe one the younger Members, even though I'm 50 now, who has traveled the world and tried to be engaged on these issues, like Mr. Aderholt, Mr. Pitts and many others, Mr. Smith on our side. This is so fundamental to our way of life and our moral authority in the world and we lose that. Not everybody is worried about money. In the world they look to us because we're basically good and we uphold the right of the individual, and those are inherent human rights.

This Commission is the right approach. Otherwise, it just gets lost in the shuffle of this crisis and this bailout and this conflict. The world is really struggling, and our country needs to be a light and a beacon of hope.

We have to be that light, that shining city on a hill, and we have to uphold the rights of the individual. And we have to be engaged in the world in order for that to happen. We can't just pull in and hunker down and look at the world as if it's not our problem. It is, more so today than ever, because this is a global marketplace, and we are connected to the entire world.

And there are so many wrongs around the world. We can't be the world's police force. We can't solve every single problem. But if we uphold the right of the individual, and it's fundamental to what happens here on the floor of the greatest deliberative body in the history of mankind, we have a chance of standing for the rights of the individual. Human rights are fundamental to our way of life.

This Commission is so important. I commend those that have brought it to the floor today, and urge passage by every single Member of the House.

Mr. Speaker, over the last 14 years that I have had the privilege to serve here in the House, many times I have come to the floor from the head.

Today, I totally come to the floor from the heart, and that was the initial motive that I had was from the heart. We can't really speak for each other because we are speaking from our faith perspectives, but I do think that our motives are all for peace, and that is the common denominator that brings us together today. It is historic in the sense that three principal sponsors here are a Muslim, a Jew and a Christian. I happen to be an evangelical.

But we are here in a country that is pluralistic, that separates us from the entire world in that we honor and respect everyone's religious views. We may have a foundation that's Judeo-Christian, but it's so important that we cling to this pluralistic approach. We are not theocratic, and we do not want the world to be divided over our religious beliefs.

The common denominator today is that we stand together against radicalism and violence and terrorism. I have seen polling data in the Islamic world that shows that 92 percent of Islam denounces and does not believe

that terrorism is an acceptable means to an end. That's the good news.

The bad news is that 8 percent is a very large number of people. But we want to encourage the moderates, the peace lovers in all of the Abrahamic faiths to stand together against radicalism and extremism and promote tolerance and a pluralistic view, as we have in this country, that is part of our foundation that says every one has the right to worship as they please and to believe as they please, even not to believe, if they please. That is part of our fabric.

The divisions over religion in the world create this danger of some kind of an event where, over religious intolerance and difference in the world, we can have a Crusades-like event.

Now Jesus to me is love. That's my belief. I come to the floor today to say I in no way want to water down anyone's faith or beliefs, but I do believe that Jesus taught us blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall inherit the kingdom of heaven, and I want that to be me.

I am speaking for that belief, and I believe there is a time for war. I believe when we are attacked, we have to defend ourselves and our freedom and our way of life.

But there is also a time for peace, and I hope and pray that is now. I think you have to risk peace from time to time, and that's what I am doing on the floor today. I think we must, as a Nation, risk peace.

I want to commend Tony Hall, who is part of the formation of the Council of Religious Institutions of the Holy Land, also known as the Jerusalem Council, where Mr. Berman, Mr. Ellison and I got together with the religious leaders from the Holy Land of all three Abrahamic faiths to promote peace.

Many times the state departments and the governments of these countries get together to talk peace, but then religious leaders are not there, engaged, buying into what the policies are that will maintain peace. We want the religious leaders to also come together and stand against radicalism and violence and division in the world.

I think the scope of these divisions are so great that this is the greatest pursuit we can engage in to lasting peace, is to stand together against radicalism and to respect each other's religious views. That's what I call risking peace. That's the common denominator.

I don't want to say that I know Mr. Ellison's motives or Mr. Berman's motives, but I know mine. I ask the House to come together and stand together, even if it's for this brief moment, respecting our traditions of pluralism, and the freedom of religion, but standing together united against radicalism and violence and terrorism and encouraging all in the Islamic world, and all in every faith, to stand together against violence and destruction and death so that we have the hope of a world that could exist together in peace, because blessed are those peacemakers.

Madam Speaker, I'd like to thank Chairman Rahall and Ranking Member Young and their staff for their help. I'd also like to thank all 21 cosponsors for their involvement and especially Congressman Heath Shuler, who helped me champion this very worthy initiative. Most of all, I would like to thank Principal Chief of the Cherokee Nation, Chad Smith and Principal Chief of the Eastern Band of Cherokee, Michell Hicks, as well as the National and State Trail of Tears Associations.

I am very proud of H.R. 5335, the Trail of Tears Documentation Act and count it as a great privilege to be the lead sponsor. When I was a little boy, my mother told me of my own Cherokee heritage. Her grandfather, Luna Meadows was half Cherokee. His mother, Little Flower, was a full-blooded Cherokee midwife. So completing the story of the Cherokee Removal is personal for me and very important for our country as the Trail of Tears and the forced removal is one of the seminal injustices in American history. It must be told accurately, honestly and completely. I urge passage of this bill and enactment of the legislation.

This bill is the subsequent measure to H.R. 3085, the Trail of Tears Study Act which was signed into law in December 2006. H.R. 3085 directed the National Park Service to complete a study on expanding the current Trail of Tears National Historic Trail to include previously omitted components. In 1987 when the original Trail was designated, the historical documentation available for these known passages was sparse and ambiguous. Since that time however, significant research on the proposed additions has been documented by National Park Service historians through military journals, newspaper accounts and vouchers-- compelling us to reconsider these passages. In fact, the NPS has noted that now these proposed trails are better documented than the primary routes that currently make up the Trail of Tears.

The Cherokee removal is only one tribe's story of the Indian Removal Act of 1830, but it is the most visible in American history. It is not just an Arkansas and Oklahoma story; it started in North Carolina, Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama. These distinct routes and campgrounds proposed in the Trail of Tears Documentation Act more fully reflect this tragic saga of a proud people's forced removal. The story is not yet complete until we commemorate the full experience.

The arteries I want to highlight are the detachments led by John Benge that traveled 734 miles starting at Fort Payne, Alabama continuing through Tennessee, Kentucky, Missouri, Arkansas and Oklahoma. And the Treaty Party Group led by John Bell which traveled 765 miles starting at Charleston, Tennessee crossing west over Moccasin Bend and traveling through Arkansas. It was the only one of the 17 detachments that did not disband in Oklahoma.

Also included are 29 forts and the emigration depots concentrated around Fort Payne, Alabama; Ross's Landing--present day Chattanooga, Tennessee; and Fort Cass--present day Charleston, Tennessee where the Cherokee initially were taken after being rounded up from their homes for the long journey west.

The National Park Service has demonstrated strong partnerships geared toward respecting the private property of citizens in its administering of the current Trail of Tears National Historic Trail and will continue to do so upon the addition of the Benge, Bell Routes and associated components. In fact, as the NPS traveled throughout the U.S. conducting public hearings on the proposal in the designated areas, the support and belief in this initiative were overwhelming.

The designation and interpretation of the additional sites and trails associated with the Cherokee Removal will enhance public understanding of American history. Our greatness as a nation is our ability to look at our own history objectively and in proper perspective, being mindful of the errors of the past in order

not to repeat them. Through this legislation we will honor the historic footsteps taken by the Cherokee and celebrate our future as we remember the past.

Finally, because of historical significance, H.R. 5335 enjoys broad support not only within Congress, but also with the Cherokee Nation, Eastern Band of Cherokee and associated trail organizations. The legislation is a good example of how Congress can better understand a national event through an accurate portrayal of the people, the places and the actions involved. We can learn a lot from history and in this case, ensure that it will never be repeated.

I thank the gentleman.

I voted for this bill when it came to the floor earlier. I'm likely to vote for it again today. I'm concerned about speculation. I'm also concerned about price gouging in east Tennessee. Monday following Ike, gas was $4.99 a gallon. Over 500 complaints were filed with our State and the regulators there over price gouging allegations. I'm concerned about these issues as well.

But I've got to tell you, I'm a little puzzled why the quick rush to get to the floor on this bill again this week, less than 36 hours from the time that we saw an unbelievable event happen on the floor this week. And I'm not one in the last 14 years here to complain or to blame, but I've got to tell you what happened here was they convinced Members of their own party to vote against a bill that they had cosponsored to bring new oil and gas supplies on to our country in order to defeat any reasonable new capacity energy bill and immediately then went to change the subject, refocus the debate on speculation instead of oil and gas supplies, which will bring down prices.

It's frankly a diversion, it's a distraction, and I would have to wonder if it's intentional, listening to the rule debate over how this whole process came about. That's what I wonder is exactly what caused the rush to the floor. Was it AIG, so you want to focus back on the markets and Wall Street and speculation and these kind of issues? Or was it quickly change the subject away from the very unfortunate, very watered down, weak energy alternative that they jammed through the House without a lot of debate--well, there were 3 hours of debate--but without amendments, without alternatives, except for the one bipartisan bill that they then encouraged dozens of their own Members to vote against even though they were cosponsors and bragged about having written that bill?

Now that's wrong. That's wrong, and I come here today to say it and wonder just exactly why this has come up this quick again on the floor, change the subject and get out of town. I think that's what's going on. The American people shouldn't like it. They should demand better. We can do better.

We should be here debating. If you want to debate something in the markets in speculation today, how about the accounting rules that caused the AIG bailout? Maybe we could bring that up real quick so we can address some of these problems. That ought to be debated today instead of speculation, so you can change the subject away from oil and gas supplies because you really let the American people

down this week on the floor of the House.

Nothing's going to happen in terms of bringing down the cost of oil and gas before the election, and it could have.

Well, I thank the gentleman for yielding. I even come over to the Democratic side to begin my commentary tonight, because in my 14 years here, I have developed extraordinary relationships across the aisle.

I actually grew up a Democrat. Ronald Reagan made me and many people in my family members of the Republican Party. And I constantly say here that I don't think either party has an exclusive on integrity or either party has an exclusive on ideas, and at different times both parties have really let the American people down. But I think it is important right now to analyze where we are and what the important issues are that are not adequately being addressed here in the United States Congress at a real critical time for a whole lot of people.

This is not just talk. This is a fair assessment and analysis about where we are. As a matter of fact, National Public Radio interviewed me today and asked for my honest analysis about this new Democratic Congress that took over 2 years ago, because I was very blunt and candid and critical about the Republican majority of which I was a part over the last few years of our majority, because I felt like, and I stated it, that we were more interested in protecting ourselves for a period of time than the fundamental principles that brought us into a majority in 1994, and I knew we were sinking and I knew, frankly, we were going in the wrong direction.

Sure enough, we lost. The voters really didn't vote for the new Democratic majority as much as they voted against us. So I gave a fair assessment today of this new Democratic Congress that we have been under now for almost 2 years.

The success formula in life is sometimes defined as preparation and opportunity meeting each other. You hear a lot of other definitions of what success is. One definition of success in politics and public service might be to under-promise and over-deliver. And I have to tell you that what I really have seen here in the last 2 years is over- promising and under-delivery.

This new majority, and I am not a critic, I am rarely critical, and I am not a blamer, I rarely blame, but I have to tell you, it is unbelievable how bad things have gotten here in the Congress in the last several months.

The tradition of bringing the appropriations bills to the floor, taking them through the committee, having an opportunity to amend them, has basically just been thrown out the window. They came in ballyhooing that they were going to have the most ethical Congress in the history of the country; that no earmarks would ever be dropped in straight on the floor that weren't properly vetted and gone through the committee; that nothing would come to the floor straight from the Rules Committee under a closed rule that is not an open process where the people who are rightly elected would have access to offering substitutes; that they wouldn't strong-arm their own Members to vote against things that they had actually cosponsored.

I have to tell you, all of those things that I just said they had promised were violated, not just in the last 2 years, but this week. Every single thing that I just mentioned was violated by the majority this week, and it was an ugly week here in Congress when we finally got to the most important issue of the year, which is energy.

I want to tell a couple of stories. Three years ago, after Katrina hit, I was on two appropriations subcommittees that had jurisdiction to the aftermath of Katrina, the Interior Appropriations Subcommittee and the Energy and Water Appropriations Subcommittee.

When Rita was bearing down, the second hurricane, on Galveston, they called an emergency meeting of our two subcommittees and called us into a room and they said, if Hurricane Rita continues on the track it is on and it hits Galveston head-on, we need to inform the committees that by next week we will not have gasoline across the eastern seaboard in some places. And it was an emergency crisis kind of a call.

I have to tell you that after Ike last week, in a small way, but in a very meaningful and unfortunate way, that happened in Tennessee. Prices spiked to $4.99 a gallon. In some stations there was no gas whatsoever. And that was from Ike, that did less damage than was feared, and it just proves how vulnerable we are as a nation because of energy.

This issue is now bringing us to our knees economically. So many people on fixed income are hurting so bad. And even the markets. You wonder about Wall Street and what has happened and the mortgage industry.

Listen, credit has been overextended, and those people ought to be held accountable and the government shouldn't come in and bail out the private sector. But I can tell you one reason why the credit is not being honored and the bills are not being paid, is because the cost of energy for American consumers has soared so much that they can't meet their obligations and people are being foreclosed on, credit is not being paid on time. And these big institutions like AIG and Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers, they have all consolidated and they have overextended credit. But it is a huge problem, and most all of it is driven by energy. And if we don't diversity our supply, if we don't increase our domestic production, if we don't throw the ball deep on energy, we are going to continue to come to our knees economically.

Now, you might ask, why would the refineries not be able to give the output if one or two of them are down or if there is a hurricane that comes in? Let me just say that all of the new permit applications to explore for oil and gas or bring on new refineries face litigation from these extreme groups that are lined up with lawyers 10 deep to stop new oil and gas production in this country.

That's the truth. That's the truth. That is a special interest that has a foothold in the Congress with this new majority. That's the truth. They score their votes, they rate them, and this week they pressured them to vote against a new capacity bill that was bipartisan, created by dozens of Members from both parties and, frankly, they voted against the bill that they actually wrote.

Now, how can you get Members to do that unless those special interests, the radical environmental groups that file suit over all this new oil and gas supply that we have access to, but we have locked it up, and we want to unleash it, this is the critical issue of our time. Our way of life is at stake.

This is that important, and you are seeing a sinking of our economy, a loss of our competitiveness. Without natural gas resources, our manufacturing base is leaving this country, without the ability of our people to move around and make a living. Let me tell you, Dixie Produce, Lee Pittman, a small businessman and an excellent entrepreneur, pays his bills on time, works hard. He can't make a go of it because gasoline is too high for him to make a profit. He has nowhere to turn.

I feel for these people. I want this Congress to respond. I want us to throw the ball deep on energy.

Now the Democrats typically say all you all want to do is drill, and we want renewables. Listen, I am the cochairman of the Renewable Energy Caucus. I have been for 8 years. I have promoted more than anybody on our side, maybe Roscoe Bartlett and I, the expansion of tax credits and incentives for renewable investments, but they are not quite ready for the marketplace.

The total percentage of all energy is only 6 percent, and you can't increase it to 20 overnight. I would ask the new majority, if they really believe that much, why have they not extended the renewable tax energy credits and incentives all year long. We are still waiting for that. It's supposed to come up next week, they say.

Now today we hear they want to adjourn next Friday and put that off until after the election too. They are also talking about a new economic stimulus, which they say means unemployment compensation and other social-type programs. I know we have got

to help people that need relief, but the most important economic stimulus we can do is pass the American Energy Act, creating thousands and thousands of new production jobs in manufacturing and energy technologies for the whole world, for our country and the world. That's throwing it deep and going after it for all the right reasons.

Listen, this place is broken down to where for months now, this Democratic majority has been in retreat over this issue of energy because the radicals, the extremists, have basically convinced them that the higher the price of gas goes, the better off we are. People will quit driving and quit using fossil fuels if the prices go that high.

We don't believe that's in America's best interests. We believe we have got to build a bridge to the future by bringing on some new oil and gas supplies, diversifying our supply, go after the renewals in hydrogen and the new advancements and build nuclear plants, but we believe you have got to do it all.

This week they watered down a bill so bad that it has very, very little, if any, oil in it, even if you could do it. They passed it so the Members could go home and say we voted to drill. Please re-elect us and keep us there.

That's not really what the American people deserve or expect. I am not saying that Republicans are smart and Democrats are dumb, or we are good and they are bad. I am saying that they are not doing a good job representing what our country needs. They are not bringing the legislation to the floor, and they are playing politics with this thing, and we have got to have a bill soon to the President, because we can't put this off for any longer time.

I thank the gentleman for yielding.

I want to start by saying I have been here in the House for 14 years, and I do not believe that either party has an exclusive on integrity or ideas. I think that both parties have plenty to improve on, but I wanted to come tonight to say that not a single issue in many months, if not years, has so divided the two parties down the lines of what is best for America and what's best for the special interests in this issue of energy, because I really believe that extremism is what is causing the majority party to be in retreat from serving the needs and meeting the needs of the American people.

I'm talking about environmental extremists, and I say this with great respect because I think conservation and preservation and environmental responsibility are very important. And I have an excellent record of supporting all of the alternatives on energy as the cochairman of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus here in the House for 8 years. I have helped lead the tax incentives for renewable and energy efficiency programs, helped put it in the Energy Policy Act of 2005, one of the most significant developments in the history of our country for these alternatives, and I believe in these programs.

But I have to tell you, when it comes time now at this critical moment in American history for new energy capacity and new production at a time where the prices for consumers are unsustainable, environmental extremism, which is a special interest--when you look at the Environmental Defense Fund and Sierra Club and all of these entities that are filing suit to keep our country from going after new supplies, which does directly bring prices down for regular people who are hurting badly, then extremism and special interests are trumping the will of the American people.

And that's where, frankly, a very liberal mindset from places like California should not dictate national policy that impacts consumers in Tennessee. And that is happening today.

Monday, the price of gasoline in Knoxville, Tennessee, was $4.99 a gallon. Let me tell you that is $2.50 above sustainability based on market conditions and our economy. And something has to give. And the American people are on our side. And what happened here last night was extremism and radicalism trumped mainstream values and positions for the American people.

Then I was asked today on National Public Radio why then would the majority party tomorrow bring up this issue of speculation in the marketplace again on energy when we've already voted on that earlier in the year. And the reason is they are reeling over what happened last night where, as Members are going to tell you and even call people by name, dozens of Democrats that cosponsored a reasonable compromise bill that we offered last night in the only option we had to offer an alternative, cosponsored this mainstream, compromise, middle-ground bill and then voted against it so that they could protect the liberal, California-driven, no-energy bill, which is the equivalent of drinking out of a straw when our country needs a fire hose right now. Right now.

And these hurricanes prove again any refinery capacity lost, any natural disaster, any disruption can cripple our country overnight.

We need to diversify our supply, increase our supply, have a robust, manufactured-driven economy where we are solving our own energy problems and providing these solutions to the world. We can do it. I have got to tell you we have candidates at the Presidential level, here in the Congress, that are willing to do this. But last night we were stymied by a majority that's in the back pocket of the extremists. And that's the truth.

Now I am about as nonpartisan as anybody can be in this body and be in one party or the other, but that is now happening, and it's very frustrating because people are calling me from all across my district saying, ``Why are you not doing something about it?'' And we are trying.

Last night was a closed rule. No options, no alternatives except the one alternative, which was a bill sponsored by Members of both parties, written by Members of both parties. And the very people that sponsored it in the majority party voted against it so that they could protect themselves.

And then tomorrow they're going to then change the subject to try to get the message back on Wall Street in a week where Wall Street, obviously, is suffering more and more losses, and I will guarantee you the conservatives in this body, people like me and the people on the floor tonight, are not supporting bailouts and not supporting propping up corporations that lent more credit than they should have. We're not for bailing out anybody, and they're going to try tomorrow to convince the American people that this is still all about Wall Street investors running up the price of oil instead of the radical groups keeping us from going after energy supplies in our country.

We need the alternatives, we need the investment; but what are we going to do in the meantime while we're bringing those to the marketplace? I'm not talking about months; I'm talking about years before we have those alternatives ready for the market. And what do we do as a transition, a bridge to get there? Increase capacity. Prices will come down as we increase the capacity. The energy that we have at our disposal--and we need all of it, all across the Outer Continental Shelf, not 50 miles offshore. It limits it to just a little bitty amount, and then the lawsuits just will be filed. Four hundred and eighty-seven Outer Continental Shelf permits are under litigation, immediately sued by these radical groups.

So to the average American, understand: extremism on policies like this, locking up our energy resources, have brought us to our knees and we actually have to have some kind of explosion here on the floor of the House for the majority to let us unleash this and send a bill to this President who will sign it. And they knew that last night if they would have allowed their own Members who cosponsored this bill to vote for it, we would have something working through the Senate, the President would sign it, and we would begin production. And as soon as we go after this new energy, the prices will come down.

Now, that's where we're at.

And I hate to just be that critical of the other side, and I rarely am, but tonight, this is the moment. And we've got to keep this issue out there because they're looking for ways to cover it up and go home. And tomorrow, it's change the subject. It's about speculation, or then it's going to be about price gouging, or all of these diversionary tactics to keep the American people thinking that it's something other than production.

And right now it is production. We need to go after it. The American people get it, but we need to let them know exactly what happened here this week in the House of Representatives.

Again, I am not critical most of the time of either party here in the House, but this is an inconvenient truth that I need to share as well. Because it's easy to forget now in September, but I've been on the Appropriations Committee for 12 years. Every year, by June, the Appropriations bills are moving through the House.

The end of the fiscal year is 13 days from now, and one bill has been off this House floor.

But here's what happened, beginning in June, is we started debating at the committee this issue of energy--because virtually every bill has a component of energy, whether it's the defense bill, where there is a huge energy consumption piece of all of our defense activities. And when we started debating energy at these bills, they stopped the process.

And we don't have the appropriations bills at all, and the fiscal year ends in 13 days.

Now, here is the problem with it because it gets really ugly. Even under a stopgap funding bill, like a continuing resolution which we're now expecting to carry us several months into the fiscal year, you won't believe the waste associated with the budgets of all of these agencies because they don't know what they're going to get. They may be laying people off now. We're already hearing about this because they don't have certainty in their budgets because the people running the House stopped the trains, stopped the process, stopped the bills over this issue of energy. They're in retreat on this issue of energy.

A lot of people criticize our party as the party of ``all about drilling.'' It's not just the drilling. What about nuclear energy? The very chairman of their new global warming committee, the gentleman from Massachusetts, is the most anti-nuclear activist who I know of in the country, let alone in the House. They're standing against nuclear and against a host of other alternatives, not just oil and gas.

It's the idea of, if you don't use coal and you don't use nuclear and you don't use oil, the alternatives will somehow surface, but I've got to tell you, when you limit your supplies, the lights go out, and the gas prices go up, and the availability of energy goes down. Consumers are hurting, and that's why we have got to get over this.

These, again, are special interests that have taken control through these people being elevated to power, and they just punt the process. We are not moving appropriations bills. The global warming committee now is kind of in the driver's seat. Let's just shut it all down, and we will reduce the carbon footprint, but at what cost--American competitiveness? American prices? Our ability to even survive? What about bankruptcies? What about the people? What about the common man who now doesn't even have a voice in this place because they're shutting down the process?

Now I've got to tell you that I haven't complained in 14 years, but it's time to complain. It's actually time to be righteously indignant about this and force them to stay here until we get something done, something real for the consumer.

I yield back.

Actually, our leadership raised that, and they just tabled it. They just quash it and go on. These are air-dropped. Again, this didn't go through the committee process.

Listen, if the Congress is going to exert its constitutional right to direct funding, there's a provision that you have to go through--the subcommittee, the full committee. It has to be vetted. It has to be filed. It has to be before the House, and people have to have the right to offer amendments to strike it. Did that happen yesterday? No, not at all.

Once again, these are the things that the American people are so angry about, and I've got to tell you that it's time for reform, but if anybody thinks reform is going to come from this new majority, they'd better think twice.

One final point. I was here in the late nineties when we balanced the Federal budget, and about 5 years ago I gave a speech at the National Press Club talking about how the budget got balanced. Because while a lot of people would like to believe that we somehow cut spending to balance the budget, that didn't happen. We slowed the growth of spending below inflation for the first time in a generation. But why the budget got balanced was because revenues surpassed expenses with a robust U.S. economy, driven principally by the information sector, the likes of Bill Gates and Microsoft and us leading the world. So the speech I gave was we could do the same thing again with energy technology, with new energy solutions.

I have got to tell you now, before we leave there is going to be another push by the new majority for a second stimulus bill, and their idea of an economic stimulus is to extend unemployment benefits and to give some assistance for low income energy, which is going to be needed because this winter home heating fuel is going to be through the roof, even worse than it was last year.

But I will tell you, the most important thing we could do for the economy, again, is throw the ball deep, pass the American Energy Act, go after all the energy sources we can, create many manufacturing jobs, lead the world with our innovation with our manufacturing, with our technology deployment, throw it deep, and we could balance the budget again with a robust U.S. economy.

But as it sputters, the worst thing we can do is lock our energy resources and kind of cower down and say how can we borrow our way into prosperity? How can we bail out into prosperity? How can we just give people money?

No, we need to invest in these energy resources we have and the new technologies and all the new ideas. And nuclear, we ought to lead the world in nuclear production and not be caught in a Three Mile Island time warp of 30 years ago. Gracious, what do we have to be afraid of, our own energy and our own country? This is asinine. And we need to do that for the economy right now.

Governor Sarah Palin is saying it tonight. We ought to be saying it and doing it. We have got it in Alaska. We have it off the coast. We have got nuclear. We have the capability.

Energy, national security and the environment are together the most important challenges we face. So this is not process. This is not just a debate on the floor. This is our future, and this is whether or not our way of life is extended to the next generation. That is how important energy is tonight. We have got to stay and we have to fight for the American people here, because, frankly, they are being stymied on the floor of the House of Representatives.

Madam Speaker, over the last 14 years that I have had the privilege to serve in the U.S. House of Representatives, I have tried not to be excessively partisan. Frankly, having grown up a Democrat and become a Republican during the Reagan movement in this country, I feel like neither party has an exclusive on integrity, neither party has an exclusive on ideas.

But I feel compelled, Madam Speaker, to come to the floor today to say that one issue right now is burning in the American public like no other issue, and that is the cost of energy. This morning, the economy is sliding rapidly downward, primarily because of energy.

Now there's talk in the House here and in the Congress of a second stimulus bill that includes a variety of things that the new majority, the Democrat majority, has cobbled together. But the most important thing we could do for the American economy is to pass the American Energy Act, which is the Republican bill that opens up all of our oil and gas resources in this country. That is the most important thing we could do for the economy. For jobs and productivity and exports and standing our country back up economically, it is the most important thing.

Yet today it's going to be suppressed again because the Democratic energy alternative is a very limited, watered-down effort, designed, honestly, to just give some of their members a vote so they can say, Oh, we voted to drill a little bit and go home to campaign. Yet their idea of economic stimulus is going to be more government, more spending, more borrowed money, and it's really unfortunate.

It's really unfortunate because the most important thing we could do is just pass this robust energy bill, and in our bill we share the revenues with the States that opt in, that want to have Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas exploration in the zone where the oil and gas is, in the Gulf or off the West Coast, this resource that's been locked up for a long period of time, that we now know has to be unlocked, and Hurricane Ike was another reminder over the weekend that we need to diversify our supply, increase our supply, and have a robust approach to this, and not a very limited approach.

I will tell you where the problem lies. The American people are really frustrated. I have local officials calling me every day, angry, because the people they represent don't have anywhere to turn. Gas in east Tennessee was $4.99 a gallon this weekend. People on fixed incomes are hurting and hurting and hurting and they wonder what the heck is going on in Congress and how is this happening. I have got to tell you, it's called extremism.

Now environmentalism is a good thing if it's a responsible, logical, commonsense resource management idea. It's a good thing. But extreme environmentalism is the problem. Extreme environmentalism has locked up our energy resources for a long period of time. And these Sierra Club types lobby the Congress and they score these Members and they say, If you don't vote with us all the time, you're somehow a radical person in the back pockets of oil and gas, and all this. Let me tell you, they're extreme.

On every new permit in this country, every single one for oil and gas exploration, they have immediately filed a lawsuit to tie it up in court, and they have got an unlimited supply of lawyers to sue to keep us from bringing any new oil and gas resources on the market. That is a huge problem. It's called extremism in the environmental community.

For years and years, they have been lobbying this place, and I have been here, and I have seen it. Now it's come home to roost. These are our problems.

Today, we need to give the Republicans a vote on the American Energy Act today in the House, and let's unleash the economy again and lower the cost of energy before it's too late, guys.

Ladies and gentlemen of the House, this is an important day. It's not about politics, it's about the people we represent and the fact they have nowhere else to turn. We need action. We need it today. This is not a partisan thing. There are really responsible people on both sides of the aisle that need to come together. And the liberals from San Francisco don't need to govern national policy.

Mr. Speaker, I rise this morning as the co-chair of the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Caucus in the House of Representatives, representing well over half of the full House, to praise today's 11th annual Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Expo being held all day long in the Cannon Caucus Room.

Republicans and Democrats will join in support of these most important investments in renewable energy: wind, solar, biomass, geothermal. We have an abundance of these opportunities. We need to grow this from 6 percent of our electricity utilization to much, much higher.

We believe that Members should lead, encouraging weatherization of your homes, new appliances in your homes, ways to conserve. Conservation is not for wimps. It's for warriors. Not every American will wear the uniform of our Armed Forces, but every American can help our country reduce the demand and lower the cost for energy.

It's a critical issue. Our all-of-the-above strategy includes a tremendous focus on renewable energy, energy efficiency, energy conservation.

We encourage all Members to come to Cannon Caucus at any time today and join us in this most important bipartisan effort.