speaker of the house of representatives. the speaker pro tempore: pursuant to the order of the house of january 3, 2013, the chair will now recognize members from lists submitted by the majority and minority leaders for morning hour ebate. the chair will alternate recognition between the parties with each party limited to one hour and each member other than the majority and minority leaders and the minority whip each, to five minutes but in no event shall debate continue beyond 11:50 a.m. the chair recognizes the gentleman from oregon, mr. lumenauer, for five minutes. mr. blumenauer: thank you, mr. speaker. five years ago if someone asked what a bow tie-wearing progressive democrat from oregon and my colleague, ted poe, a cowboy boot-wearing conservative republican from texas could agree on, you would have said, not much. today we are partners in an issue, however, that makes sense regardless of your politics. ensuring sustainable equitable access of clean water for nearly 800 million women, men and children who don't have it and 2.5 billion without the most basic sanitation services. ted poe and i think that politics should stop with water. that's why today we're introducing the paul simon water for the world act of 2013. since congress passed the paul simon water for the poor act in 2005, the united states has become a global leader in efforts to increase access to clean water and sanitation, developing and implementing some of the most innovative approaches to help those in greatest need. we must not only maintain this progress but work to further refine and focus the efforts at usaid and the department of state by enacting the world act. we are committed because dirty water and lack of sanitation fects all areas of development assistance. especially the case when it comes to women and children. more children are killed by water-borne disease than any other. increasing access to clean water and sanitation has a significant multiplier effect, enabling us to do more with less, critical in a time of constrained budget resources. every day the world has more people but fewer fresh water resources. our bipartisan legislation will give the united states the capacity to avoid unnecessary loss of life and conflict in the future. it would ensure that water, sanitation and hygiene programs are reflected and other development assistance, prioritizing long-lasting impact of the united states foreign aid dollars and increase the focusing on monitoring, evaluation, transparency and capacity building. children cannot attend school if they're sick from dirty water. half the world's hospital beds today are filled with people suffering from water-borne disease needlessly. hours spent getting water are hours not working or in school. a lack of clean drinking water has a disproportionate affect on women who in developing countries walk an average of 3.7 miles a day to get water. the estimates are 40 billion working hours are lost each year in africa alone. 200 million hours today. having water means girls can go to school and build a better future. it also reduces risk of violence and sexual assault. a study by doctors without borders found that 82% of the women and girls treated for rape in west and south darfur were attacked while they were gathering water or firewood. the challenge is not getting easy because 97% of the water on earth is salty and unfit to drink. of the 2.5% roughly of the earth's water that is fresh, 2/3 of that is frozen, locked away in the ice caps and glaciers. although it's rapidly melting because of climate change, that's not going to help us because it will be salty as well. we have less than 1% of global fresh water available for human use, and because of the demands for growing food, energy and industry, only about .1% is available for people to drink. this tiny fraction is further diminished by deficient or nonexistent water infrastructure. even in the united states, we waste six billion gallons of fresh water every day through leaky pipes. severe tering an era of water scarcity that they fear could lead to water instability. there is nothing more fundamental to families and global health than clean water and sanitation. more needs to be done, and it needs to be done well. taxpayers understandably demand better results and greater transparency from foreign aid. this bill provides the tools and incentives to do just that. we urge our colleagues to adopt our motto, "politics stops at water," and support this effort. this magnitude will take a teamworking together, united in the goal -- team working together, united in the goal. please join us in this critical legislation, the paul simon water for the world act. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. rothfus, for five minutes. mr. rothfus: thank you, mr. speaker. from time to time in our nation's history people of faith have stepped forward to all this nation to something greater. this is steeped in our culture, our tradition and our founding documents. it goes back to the cross at cape henry and the landing at plymouth rock. you see it in the declaration of independence and abolishing slavery. it was the people of faith who birth the new civil rights movement. no one did that more than the reverend dr. martin luther king. this month marks the 50th anniversary of the most iconic speeches, dr. king's address at the lincoln memorial. it's great to recollect the words of dr. king, a man who stands among the heroes of our nation. dr. king was a pathor. he received a divinity degree in pennsylvania. his call to ministry led him to the decksster baptist church in montgomery, alabama, where he planned the bus boycott in 1955 in the church's basement. dr. king's actions were motivated by his faith and in the just god when you read his steps. he used the words of the prophet isiah to articulate his dream of ending injustice and oppression that one day every valley should be exalted, every hill and mountain should be made low, the crooked places shall be made straight. all the flesh to see it together. martin luther king jr. looked not for a revolution but for an affirmation of the country's founding principles when he declared that we have come to our nation's capital to cash a check. when the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the constitution and the declaration of independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every american was to fall. all men would be guaranteed the inalienable rights of life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. it was not the first time that dr. king alluded to the promise of our founding documents. just four months before the march on washington, writing from a birmingham jail, he wrote that african-americans had waited for more than 340 years for their constitutional and god-given rights. king's letter from a birmingham jail could not be clearer in the articulation of the moral status of law and the role that religion plays in the just society. king wrote, what is the difference between a just and unjust law? how does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? a just law is made -- is man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of god. an unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. yes, dr. king appealed to the nation's religious roots to encourage social change and from the birmingham jail he encouraged individuals to confront unjust laws. there is nothing new, king wrote, about this kind of civil disobedience. it was evidence sublimely in the refusal of those to abait the laws of one. it was practiced superbly by the early christians who were willing to face hungry lions reason than submit to unjust laws in the roamon empire. the boston tea party did it. we should never forget, king continued, that everything that adolf hitler did in germany was legal and everything the hungarian freedom fighters did was illegal. it was illegal to aid and comfort a jew in hitler's germany. i'm sure, king proclaimed, had i lived in germany at the time i would have aided and comforted my jewish brothers. if today i lived, king continued, in a communist country where certain principles dear to the christian faith are suppressed, i would advocate disobeying that country's anti-religious laws. king's letter from a birmingham jail and his i have a dream speech should be required reading for every american high school student and for every member of congress. with the 50th anniversary of dr. king's speech upon us, it is good to remember his words. it is good we appreciate all that faith and god and the moral law had done to advance the cause of freedom in our country. it is good to reflect on whether policies enacted by government in our time are a step back from or show a rising intolerance of the religious freedom that has been instrumental in defining our country and defending our race. i thank the speaker and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair now recognizes the gentlewoman from texas, ms. jackson lee, for five minutes. ms. jackson lee: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for five minutes. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. ms. jackson lee: i thank the gentleman that proceeded me for that very powerful message and it reminds us generally of really the elements of our presence here in this house when we represent the people of this country, it is important that we are lawmakers and we have the compassion that was evidence by the movement that dr. king led and the movement that he was leading in the tragedy of his death and that was, of course, the poor people's march in 1968. i rise today to discuss that capacity and to say that i know that our friends, republicans and democrats, can come together around important service elements that this nation engages in. the federal government is an umbrella on a rainy day. it was the engine of the economy. it is the answer to issues such as transportation and housing that really provide housing to working families and it boosts the middle class and poor families and it gives jobs to builders and contractors. and so that is why i think it s quite appropriate for this unfortunately poorly driven and constructed transportation and housing and urban development appropriations bill to go to its timely death. how can you with any compassion cut so much money that you cut even the amount of money under the present budget and you cut 9% below the level now mandated by the across-the-board spending cuts, by squegs ration? you went -- sequestration? you went below that. this bill was $41 billion. shameful. cutting public housing. cutting housing vouchers. cutting opportunities for the homeless and particularly our young people. as the co-chair of the congressional children's caucus, every day i note that children in america suffer for a variety of reasons. the senate, of course, had a bill that they are pushing through that was at the $54 billion. still very far short of the great needs of this community. so i rise today to say that it landed with a thud and i think more importantly my colleague from texas, again, from houston, spoke on the floor of the house about some untimely language on page 52. i remember it. that cut into the light rail system of houston. it would impact my district. it would stop students at the university of houston and texas southern university from being able to have access to rail, cutting down on their travel costs because there was a provision in the bill that did not fund just a sector of that light rail. my colleagues, how can you build light rail when you cut it in the middle like the western movies when the train rushes up and finds a big hole over the mountain where something has happened and it can't go any further? so it was a bill destined to die, should have died because it lacked compassion. and i stand here opposing any language that does not fund or find an alternative route. in any communities, light rail of which that community chooses to move forward on. in houston we should not be attacked, if you will, for that kind of singular targeting. our light rail should proceed. but i rise today to, again, reinforce this question of homelessness by showing this picture. houston seeks better ways to serve homeless youth. and to be able to indicate in order to count homeless youth, they were able to count .1. when houston leadership tried to count them, there were over 4,000. our school districts say there are 19,000. and yet we have a home called little audrey that the very public dollars that are supposed to be in the h.u.d. fudding could fund. -- funding could fund. mind you, in a city as large as houston, there are only four for homeless youth. i visited little audrey. these are the kinds of young people who are there, a young man who lived in a crack house not because he was on crack but because he had no place to live, he found his way to little audrey. father died hose in a hurricane. a young man who was put out of his house from dallas. little audrey is a refuge that would be helpful to the children that i met with and sat down with as this young man is being hugged bykov nant house. they cannot do it alone. . it is important that communities to receive public dollars, such as the public facility dollars that the housing community office has, utilize it so we do not have this kind of shame in our community. i look forward to working with the city, community housing development, and the secretary of housing to stop youth homelessness in america and to help these young people. i know we can do it together. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. cclintock, for five minutes. mr. mcclintock: mr. speaker, yosemite valley is a national treasure that was setaside in 1864 with the promise it would be preserved for the express purpose of, quote, public use, resort, and recreation. ever since americans have enjoyed a host of recreational opportunities and amenities as they come to experience the slendor of the valley. now the -- slen door of the valley. now the -- the slender of the valley. now they are proposing to eliminate many of the amenities including bicycle rentings, horseback riding rentals, gift shonts, swimming pools, and facilities including the ice skating rink, art center, and the stone bridges that date back to the 1920's. for generations these facilities have enhanced the enjoyment of the park for millions of visitors, adding a rich variety of recreational activities amidst of breathtaking backdrop of yosemite. today the very nature and purpose is being changed from the original promise of public resort, use, and recreation, to an exclusionary agenda that can best be described as look but don't touch. as public outrage has mounted, these leftist groups have found willing mouthpieces in the editorial boards of the left leaning "san francisco chronicle" and "sacramento bee," it is obviously their editorial writers have not read the report or are deliberately misrepresenting it to their readers. they say the plan's designed to relieve overcrowding in the park. in fact this plan compounds the overcrowding. in 1997, flooding wiped out almost half the campsites in yosemite valley. congress appropriated $17 million to replace these campsites, the money was spent, the campsites were never replaced. that's what's causing the overcrowding. half the campsites for the same number of visitors. this plan would lock in a 30% reduction in campsites and a 50% reduction in lodging compared to the preflood era. three swimming fools in the valley give visitors a safe place with lifeguards for their children to cool off in the summer. the park service wants to close two of them. that means packed overcrowding at the remaining pool pushing families seeking water recreation into the perilous merced river. they assure us they are not eliminating all the shops at yosemite but only reducing the number of them. understand the practical impact on tourists. it means they are going to have to walk much greater distances to access these services, and then endure long lines once they get there. another of the falsehoods is that the plan doesn't ban services like bike rentals but just moves them to better locations. the government's only report puts the lie to this claim, it specifically speaks to quote, eliminating, and removing these services. it goes on to specifically state, and i quote, over time visitors would become accustomed to the absence of these facilities and would no longer expect them as a part of their experience in yosemite. end quote. their intent could not possibly be any clearer. we are sure that although bicycle rentals will be, i'm using the government's word, elimb natted from the valley in the interest of environmental protection, visitors will still be free to bring their own bikes. that invites the obvious question. what exactly is the environmental difference between a rented bicycle and a privately owned bicycle? we are assured in the words of the "sacramento bee" that the plan merely contemplates relocating raft rental so they meet visitors at the river n truth, the plan specifically that it -- river. in truth, the plan specifically states that it will only have private boating and limit permits to 100 per day. mr. speaker, every lover of yosemite needs to read this report. it proposes breaking the compact between the american people and their government that promised public use, resort, and recreation for all time. when the park was established. my district includes yosemite national park. i represent the gateway communities that depend on park tourism to support their economies. the affected counties and communities are unanimous this their vigorous opposition to this plan, and in a recent phone survey the people of these communities, who are jealous guardians of yosemite, expressed opposition to it in numbers well exceeding 80%. things need to be done to improve gate access and traffic flow through the park, but destroying the amenities that provide enjoyment for millions of yosemite visitors each year is not among them. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair now recognizes the gentlewoman from maryland, ms. edwards, for five minutes. ms. edwards: thank you, mr. speaker. climate change is not a science debate, it never was. as we know, science is never universally agreed upon, it's a constant re-examining of what is being the status quo. nonetheless, the science surrounding climate change is near universal and it is incontrovertible. over several decades of study an overwhelming majority of scientists, including many at noaa, and nasa goddard in my district, as well as researchers worldwide have concluded that climate change is real, it's caused by man, and it will have a significant impact on our earth, its process, the safety of our public, and our economy. these findings simply must guide our policy decision was regard to our environment in all due haste. as a member of the house committee on science, space, and technology, i remain astounded that so much climate denial exists within these chambers. this is translated into slashing funding for climate research and earth science research. term and long term, it's resulted in preventing agencies with the expertise to maintain and develop earth observing systems and conduct the analysis necessary to understand our earth. just two weeks ago our house ience committee reported out legislation that would cut nasa's earth science budget by a third. something like over $600 million. nasa's a major contributor to our u.s. global change research program and such a cut would not only devastate earth science research, but hamper our ability to understand what is truly a matter of national significance, indeed global significance. fortunately, my home state of maryland will suffer disproportionately if this chamber refuses to act. maryland has the fourth longest title and coastline and third most vulnerable to sea level rise. one of the major consequences of climate change. islands and low-lying communities throughout our state will be impacted by rising seas and severe weather events like hurricane sandy. just last week "the washington post" reported that maryland's coastal waters could rise six feet by the end of this century. this increase could cause flooding in major cities like baltimore and indianapolis. areas of the lower half of the elmarva pen anyone sewell la - peninsula would be impacted. it will pose significant problems for the state, indeed, for our nation, but this is not one state's concern. it's a 50-state concern, it's a global concern. goddard space flight center, located just outside my congressional district, is home to a number of climate scientists who are genuinely concerned about observed and plea dicted trends for the future. this historical trend of warming and sea level eyes in particular are not -- ice in particular are not fiction. they are indisputable and in many ways terrifying. i want to bring to your attention idgeage one. in maryland the warming trend has increased from two degrees fahrenheit to 6.1 degrees just since 1960. this is significant and concerning warming in just my state. the u.s. trends are equally staggering, and the global trends are even more overwhelming. but what concerns me even more is the following chart, and it is one that depicts polar sea ice, which is important to control and mod rate global climate. as the ice melts in the summer, it absorbs the sunlight and warms our poles. and what's happening is that because according to the national snow and ice data center, even a slight warming of the polls will quicken the pace of global warming and likely lead to more severe climate patterns. since 2000, arctic ice during the summer has been melting at rates that are scaring scientists. in here what you see is a sharp decline during the summer ice melting. last year half of the sea ice actually melted during the summer. i want to highlight one more thing, our most conservative models didn't predict what we actually observed in terms of decline in sea ice thickness. our climate model simulations have failed to keep with actual significant loss. this problem is twofold. first, additional cuts to climate research and gaps in our lights, and there are gaps because we are not funding them, make these observations even less accurate and weaken our modeling. and second, the polls are actually warming faster than we ever predicted. it's estimated that by 2020 all the sea ice during the summer will be melted. it's time for us to act. and for the sake of the future generations of our economy, our environment, let's restore climate research capacity, let's act for future generations. with that i yield. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from virginia, mr. rigell, for five minutes. mr. rigell: i thank the speaker. mr. speaker, i rise today in this, the people's house, to pay tribute to, to honor, and to remember the lives of 32 american heroes. next tuesday is august 6, and it's the most sobering anniversary in the district i have the privilege to represent. it was on that day in 2011 that enemy fighters in afghanistan shot down a chinook helicopter, killing five soldiers, three airmen, and 24 navy seals. this tragedy marks the heaviest loss of life for our elite navy seal community. the warriors we lost that day ere loving husbands, devoted fathers, brave sons, patriots. while their families struggle with this loss, their own personal hero, our nation stands with them and the good folks in virginia's second congressional district stand with them as well. mr. speaker, men and women have sacrificed for this country at a high cost, and i wrestled with this question and i do not know why providence calls upon ome to give so much, including in cases like this, for a young man or young woman to give the full measure of sacrifice in defense of our freedom. i do know this, mr. speaker. i know the duty that we have to the fallen. that's to honor and to remember them and to care for their families and to meet our obligation today in this place and across this great land to press on for the freedom and liberty that they gave their life for. so it is with reverence and respect, mr. speaker, and sincere appreciation from one american to the families of the fallen that i'll now read the names of these americans whose lives were taken that day in defense of our country. these are navy servicemen killed that day. jonah kellso. lewis j. langless. thomas a. ratcliff. craig m. vickers. . kevin a. houston. matthew d. mason. steven m. mills. nicholas h. null. robert j. reefs. heath m. brothis. derrick c. benson. christopher g. campbell. jared w. day. john dera. michael j. strange. john t. tomilson. aaron c. vaughn. jason r. workman. jesse d. pittman. nicholas p. spear. five soldiers killed that day. david r. carter. brian j. nichols. patrick d. hamburg. alexander j. bennett. spencer c. duncan. airmen killed that day, john w. brown, andrew serb. ell, and daniel l. mr. speaker, as these families continue to struggle with their loss, we continue to pray for them asking that god will give them a special measure of grace and peace on this day and the days ahead. i yield back the remainder of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair now recognizes the gentlewoman from california, mrs. capps, for five minutes. thank you, mr. speaker. and i rise today to speak on behalf of support for funding for the community development block grant, commonly known here as cdbg funding. you know, public-private partnerships are a great investment for our communities. and on the central coast of california as well as in communities all across our country, this community development block grant has long been a critical source of funding for local initiatives. cdbg funding gives nonprofits opportunity to provide locally tail ord services in an efficient and -- tailered services in an efficient and effective manner. these nonprofits are able to leverage additional private funding, giving taxpayers -- taxpayer dollars an extra bang for the buck in spending power. it's a win-win for everyone. the investments that are made stimulate and grow our local economy. they improve the quality of life for our working families. my constituents see cdbg funding at work each day even though they may not know it is. it is there working on their behalf. it is the santa maria meals on wheels program which delivers nutritious meals to local seniors each day. for many of these seniors, the only real meal they'll have in a day. it's the thrifty shopper and catholic charities community services which support mobile food disty budget resolution for those in -- distribution for those in need. and after-school youth education programs. these programs improve reading and study skills. they promote high school graduation and foster parent participation in a child's academic life. cdbg supports our local boys and girls club, the food bank and legal aid. it's giving santa maria a chance to rehab oakley park which benefits the entire community. cdbg helps those in need and it makes life a bit better for everyone. these are investments with real local impacts, and that's why cuts to this program, like the drastic ones we've been debating, have also a direct impact. already important programs like meals on wheels are having trouble reaching all those in need due to sequestration cuts. so to slash the program in half will only add to this devastation. you know, these aren't disposable products and projects. they are truly investments in our people and in our community. and that is why i urge my colleagues to stand with the central coast of california, to stand with communities across this nation who can't afford the bill the house majority has brought to the floor, and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman yields back. the chair recognizes the gentleman from texas, mr. conaway, for five minutes. mr. conaway: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, this week the house -- in the house we're voting on pieces of legislation that will roll back the obama administration's overreach. stop m this effort, government abuse week. our message to the administration is quite simple, no more wasted tax dollars, no more abuse of power by federal agencies. the federal government must be accountable to the american people, not unelected bureaucrats. right now we have a senior federal employee -- right now a senior federal employee can be placed under investigation for serious misconduct, yet the federal government isn't allowed to put that employee or that person on leave without pay meaning they get an extended paid vacation. that's the case with i.r.s. official lois lerner who took the fifth amendment in testifying before congress. she's now on paid leave while congress continues the agency's misconduct investigation. the employee accountability act, introduced by my friend, mike kelley from pennsylvania, will place employees on unpaid leave while they are under investigation for serious offenses. mr. speaker, i'm proud of the work the house is doing on behalf of the american people. we're sending a strong message to the obama administration, enough is enough, and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. with that the chair recognizes the gentleman from minnesota, mr. ellison, for five minutes. mr. ellison: thank you, mr. speaker, for the recognition. i want to talk today about important issues involving climate change going on all over america, all over this world. but today i want to talk about our urban communities. global warming, in fact, is expected to increase to frequency, intensity of natural disasters like wildfires in the west, hurricane sandy on the east coast and to record drought conditions that continue for another year across the midwest. but in urban areas, cities like d.c. or my own town of minneapolis, the fact is that we have something known as an urban heat island. now, urban heat islands are a serious problem because urban areas tend to have temperatures five to 20 degrees warmer than rural areas which is known as the heat island effect. heat islands are caused by a lack of natural vegetation, dark-colored, impervious roads, blacktops, concrete, and exhaust from vehicles and industry. as global temperatures increase, urban areas are warming at double the rate of the average global temperature. so this is a real serious issue. heat islands drive people to increase the use of air conditioning, which, of course, effect. ious in turn, increasing the air conditioning drives up energy costs and increases power plant emissions which contributes to the heat island in the first place. these emissions not only contribute to global warming, they impact human health, increase emissions of carbon monoxide, mercury and particulate matter leads to heart attacks, stroke and asthma. now, particulate matter are very, very fine pieces that are emitted out of coal plants. they go into the air and come down and we breathe that stuff in. the effect of this extreme heat in urban areas disproportionately affects some americans as opposed to others. it affects anyone who lives in an urban area, but, of course, given the populations of urban areas, it affects certain areas more, including communities of color, low-income communities, elderly. this housing segregation that we have in our country which you have this disproportionate numbers of some populations in ban areas concentrates racial, ethnic minority environments and that's why we see african-americans experiencing some of these heat-related hazards that has everything to do from asthma nd other sort of issues like this. low-income minority elderly, less able to adapt to these extreme climate events. the communities most at risk from heat island effects and heat waves. these communities already plagued by high pollution than wealthier white communities, coal plants, bus depots, trash incinerators are disproportionately in the very areas i speak of now. and this heat island effect makes it all just worse. high cost of air conditioning, the inability to move into special heat wave disaster shelters increases risks. urban minorities often have underlying health issues such as higher rates of asthma, as i mentioned before, due to the increased pollutants in these heat islands. in the 1995 heat wave in chicago, they killed mostly elled leer who couldn't escape -- elderly who couldn't escape. the european heat wave in 2003 killed at least 30,000 people, although some estimates put that number as high as 70,000. socioeconomic disparities will worsen through the heat -- through the health and economic effects of climate change. as global temperatures continue to rise, the heat waves in urban areas are increasing the frequency duration and intensity, the effect on my community of minneapolis and urban areas all over this country are experiencing. this is a serious issue. it. ve to focus on we have to do something about it. and the time is now. i want to thank the safe climate caucus for organizing members to discuss this issue for the public today so that we can all come to a greater level of appearance about the true dangers of ignoring global climate change. i yield back. thank you very much. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from georgia, mr. broun, for five minutes. mr. broun: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, this government is out of control. it has become too big and too intrusive. it is spending too much. it is taxing too much. it is regulating too much. it is borrowing too much. and it's sticking its ugly nose into our business too much. this must stop. obamacare does every one of those things. this law is a disaster -- is as disastrous as a train running full throttle without an engineering speeding towards a head-on collision and wrecking everything in its tracks. i come before you today with a solution. my patient option act, h.r. 2900. my patient option act will revitalize american health care. not through government interference, but by giving the american people full control over their health care decisions. it will make health care cheaper for everyone. it provides coverage for all americans and it will save medicare from going broke. my patient option act repeals obamacare in its entirety. it replaces it with some patient-centered commonsense solutions. these solutions include 100% tax deductibility for health care expenses for everyone, including insurance. flexibility for individuals and businesses to join associations here there will be health care options. expanding health savings accounts that patients will own and control. freedom for consumers to purchase health insurance across state lines. and tax incentives to reward physicians who provide free care to patients who cannot afford health insurance. my patient option act accomplishes all of this and more in just 77 pages. that's a stark contrast to a 2,000-page nightmare of obamacare. in fact, obamacare's regulations are two million words longer than the bible. any bill that much longer than he bible has to be bad for america. my patient option act is a solution that americans need and deserve. unfortunately the clock is ticking, and time has almost rub out. a georgia businessman recently told me that his insurance premiums for his employees have increased by 40% this year compared to last due to obamacare. . recently he told me that he's seriously considering letting all his workers go and hiring only part-time employees. and recently, even president obama's health and human services department has admitted that you might not be able to keep your current doctor even if you want to. if congress does not act soon, we'll be hearing more and more of these same stories. i'm here to tell all americans and all american families that it doesn't have to be this way. mr. speaker, if americans want true patient-centered health care reform, then they must contact their congressmen and senators and urge them to pass my patient option act. mr. speaker, if americans want lower costs, coverage for everyone, a government out of the way of the doctor-patient relationship, then they must contact their representatives and urge them to pass my patient option act. if americans want full control of their coverage and freedom to make their own decisions in health care, then the patient the only true solution. we don't have much time. but through the voices of we the people, the american people, we can work to repeal this disastrous law and replace it with legislation that serves the best interest of my patients and all patients. not government. that's my patient option act. thank you, mr. speaker. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. costa, for five minutes. mr. costa: thank you, mr. speaker. tomorrow afternoon we will board our flights back to the district for the august recess. sadly we'll be leaving behind a lot of unfinished business. just yesterday the republican leadership pulled the catastrophe of a transportation and housing appropriations bill because they couldn't get the votes within their own caucus. ask my friends, when are we going to begin to govern and work together? when we come back from the august recess period, we will have nine days, just nine days left until the farm bill extension expires. but we are leaving the house without passing a true farm bill we can conference, much less appointing conferees to work out the differences between the two bills. e farmers, ranchers, and dairymen expect better in my district. uncertainty swirls around the capitol, but the only thing that seems certain here lately is that we cannot act on anything but the american people -- that the american people want us to that they view as no-brainers. take immigration reform, or perhaps the voters in this country think we should get this done and pass the senate bill. yet we are watching the summer fade into fall without even a timeline for when the house will bring up real immigration reform. it's far too easy for us to throw up our hands and say this place is broken. and that is why the -- that's not why we came to washington. no budget, little appropriations bills, no tax reform, little progress on immigration reform, and no farm bill. yet last week the republican leader said we should instead be measured by the laws that we repeal. ok. well, on that score we have exactly repealed zero laws. i came here to roll up my sleeves and get to work. we have real problems in this country that we also, i think, share in real bipartisan solutions to fix those problems. all that we need is the green light. the problem here is that the art of the political compromise has been lost. and it's about time we rediscover that art of the political compromise. we have divided government. that's not a secret. we have had divided government in the past. and by the way, we are going to have divided government for the next 3 1/2 years. let's get real. it's about time that we begin to figure out ways to work together. my hope is that when we go back home we are reminded that every vote here in the house of representatives, the people's house, is not a litmus test, and that every issue that we deal with is -- should not be looked in terms of black and white. but in shades of gray. we have a lot of challenges facing america. i hope after the august recess we come back here in september and that we put solving america's problems before our own political agendas. america cannot afford to continue this three-ring circus. it's about time we begin to work together, ladies and gentlemen. i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the chair now recognizes the gentleman from california, mr. mcnerney, for five minutes. mr. mcnerney: mr. speaker, i rise today to ask my colleagues to join me in honoring army staff sergeant ty michael carter who will be awarded with the congressional medal of honor and recognition -- in recognition of his heroic actions in afghanistan in 2009. as a father of a veteran, i am truly honored to represent staff sergeant carter, a resident of antioch, california. the medal of honor is our nation's highest military award presented for selfless sacrifice and acts of courage above and beyond the call of duty at the risk of his or her life. staff sergeant carter was born in spokane, washington, in 1980 and graduate interested north central high school. after high school he enlisted in the marine corps and served in japan. he had two additional deployments before being honorably discharged from the marine corps in the year 2002. during this time staff sergeant carter enrolled in the community college in california and studied biology. first e birth of his daughter, and after traveling throughout the united states, he enlisted to serve his country as a soldier in the united states army in the year 2008. if it was on october 3 -- it was on october 3, 2009, when specialist carter and the 54 third of b troop, squadron, 61st cavalry regiment came under heavy enemy fire in he north province of afghanistan. at great risk of his own life, staff sergeant carter resupplied ammunition to help his fellow soldiers, provided first aid to a comrade, eliminated enemy troops, and risked his own life to help carry a fellow soldiers from harm's way. the actions that mr. carter took during this ambush was critical to the defense of the c.o.p. keating which was established in 2006 as a provincial reconstruction team camp located between two rivers. all of our nation's service families make ir great sacrifices and we can never fully repay them. it's important that we pay ribute to those who show their devotion to the united states through their service and that we ensure those who return home are provided with the services they deserve and have earned. these brave men and women are committed to one another and to honoring the call of duty to protect our great nation. e owe them the same respect. i want to commend staff sergeant carter and all of our nation's veterans for their courage and dedication to this country. our nation has always been able to depend on the selfless actions of men and women in uniform for our very existence. i ask my colleagues to join me in honoring staff sergeant ty michael carter, as well as our service men and women, their families, and veterans for their service to the united states. mr. speaker, i also want to recognize the efforts of madeline walznick, a 12-year-old student athlete who lives in low die, california. she's a competitive swimmer and has worked to bring the attention to the hard work and dedication of coaches across the country and is advocating for an annual national coaches day. there are tens of millions of student athletes in the country. coaches can have a fundamental impact on these students and i'm grateful for their endeavors to train and mentor the next generation. today's students are tomorrow's leaders, and it is important that they have teachers and mentors who inspire and encourage them in their educational pursuits. as madeline says, coaches motivate and inspire students to better themselves. in 1972 president nixon declared october 6 as the national coaches day, and madeline is working to ensure that every october 6 is national coaches day. so their efforts are appreciated and recognized by communities across the country. i urge my colleagues to join me in applauding madeline and the coaches across the country. thank you. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. seeing no further speakers and pursuant to clause 12-a of rule 1, the chair declares the louse >> unknown to the homeland security department at the time the plant stored large quantities of ammonium nitrate, a substance that can be used for making explosives. witnesses at the hearing include officials from the homeland security department and various chemical companies. they gaveled in just about an hour ago. we'll go there live until the house comes in at 1 -- noon eastern. >> first responders, local emergency planning committees, we have about 120 inspectors across the country, and it's a large country. in region 6, which includes the state of texas, we have 13 inspectors for a five-state region that spans from new mexico to arkansas. so i can promise you they have been doing their best to ensure that they are communicating with and sharing information with local authorities -- >> how long has this sort of staffing been the case? >> as long as i have been in place, which has been about two years. >> that raises a concern for me. mr. wolf, please describe how oak ridge national lab, which is involved in the assessment, gathers, stores, and communicates interagency e.p.a. information it acquires with iscd personnel? and why this relevant information was or was not passed on to the iscd headquarters? >> we work for iscd's part, we work with oak ridge and they are the folks who sort of run the data bases against one another. so recently for example, we received from e.p.a. the list of facilities that are regulated under e.p.a.'s r.n.p. program. we provide that to oak ridge. they did the crosswalk between our facilities and our data base and the e.p.a. data base, and have communicated back and forth with us. so they are under contract with the department for that purpose. >> if this is the nature of the relationship that you have with oak ridge, then why was this relevant information, why wasn't it passed on? >> i don't believe i'm familiar with an instance of information not having been passed on. >> you felt that -- you feel like you're getting information in real time? >> i feel confident in our relationship with oak ridge, certainly. >> the d.h.s. office of inspector general reported that d.h.s. has inspected only 47 of approximately 4,400 facilities regulated under c fads as of march, 2013. your office as has audited similar data at iscd. can you give an estimate of how many chemical facilities that could likely contain c.o.i. above the threshold of required reporting for cfads? and describe the plan you found in place to assess and contact the number of nonrepeating outliar facilities nationally? >> i think mr. wolf in his statement provided the most up-to-date information on the number of inspections. it sounds like the i.g. found there were 40-something inspections and mr. wolf as data shows something under 200, maybe. i don't remember the exact figure. we did find they had a cumbersome process for doing the inspections. we also found they were making it more streamlined and they seemed to be doing that. we have a mandate to look at that again once they start the compliance inspections, which won't be for several months to do that. we haven't looked at the inspection data yet, but in terms of your last question, in terms of the finding more outliers, we haven't done new work since the explosion in west texas. other than mr. wolf's discussion here of their new steps, we have no new information to add. >> i understand there is sort of an analysis, a full checklist, complex undertaking, but we're asking about a specific bit of information. hy can't we get a baseline report on the presence and the amount of chemicals at the facilities sent to you late -- sent to you? later on, you can see if they were properly stored or protected, but just the idea of where, the idea that we're going to wait long periods of time before we complete inspections at a place and therefore not know about the presence of these facilities at other places, is there a way to report on the amount of ammonium nitrate and other highly dangerous chemicals that will allow us to have an understanding of the full map? >> yeah. there certainly is. that's something we can -- we can get done and we can make available and have made available through our cfats share online tool which is something that is available to state and local -- >> but you don't know now. again, we don't know where they all are. again, we talked about, and this was the outliers, we keep talking about outliers, the facility. the literally potentially thousands of outliers who are there. we don't know about them. >> we know about the facilities that have submitted the 44,000 screens we received. so we can produce that. and as we're able to bring more outliers into the fold, we'll be able to aggregate that information as well. >> the chair will ask unanimous consent that the gentlewoman from indiana, mrs. brooks, and the gentleman from texas, mr. flores, who i know has a special interest in this issue, but allowed to sit in the dais and be allowed to participate. without objection, so ordered, mr. flores has arrived and he will be recognized to ask his questions. >> thank you for holding this important hearing today. additionally, i want to thank you on behalf of the community of west for including me in your discussion regarding the disaster that occurred at this small texas town on april 17, 2013. hopefully through this hearing we can learn from the incident in west and gain knowledge about similar facilities around the country in order to prevent future disasters of this nature. the community of west has been through so much since the tragic explosion in april. this incident took 12 lives, including the 12 first responders that you see on the poster behind me. it injured hundreds and caused tens of millions of dollars in damage. the state of texas and the entire west community have been to rebuild lessly and recover with available resources. since that day the community has desperately been seeking federal assistance necessary to rebuild. while fema has provided some important and much needed resources and assistance, the community of west is still in dire need for additional assistance to rebuild our community. in an effort to gain all of the necessary public assistance from fema under the stafford act, governor rick perry declaration.ajor on june 10, despite reaching the monetary threshold, fema denied that request. following that denial, governor rick perry appealed the president's decision to deny an m.v.d. that would have provided additional federal assistance to the people of west. while the state of texas and the city of west await the president's appeal, days go by where people are homeless, those without schools and a struggling community. now looking forward, regarding the implications and lessons from the disaster, it appears that the building blocks of the incident were due to the following -- the west fertilizer company failure to comply with existing regulations and lack of oversight. this is evidence by the national protection and programs director failing to fully implement a comprehensive ammonium nitrate security program. even though this was not a terrorist act, it is important to stress that a functional and -- anti-terrorist standards should exist to prevent any exploitation. finally, the incidents in west raised concerns that the inspectors were unaware that they were handling tons of explosive ammonium nitrate. the chemical safety board says that 72% of their recommendations regarding the risk management of ammonium nitrate and other dangerous materials have been adopted, that, however, leaves 28% of their recommendations that have not been adopted, this leads us to believe that the environmental protection agency, e.p.a., can and should mmediately strengthen safety at facilities that handle dangerous chemicals by implementing and following the remaining guidelines set forth by the c.s.b. mr. chairman, as you can see, we have regulations on the books and we have regulations from agencies with subject matter expertise. now it is up to the homeland security department, the e.p.a. and related federal agencies and private industry to act promptly to adopt safety measures that can save lives and prevent similar disasters. before congress or regulatory agencies consider new statutes or rulemaking they need to make sure that the ones we have are being properlied a jute indicated. chairman meehan and ranking member clarke, on behalf of the citizens and community of west, thank you for having me here today. i appreciate this committee's work to address the important issue that's on the table today. we want to work hard to prevent future tragedies like this in the future. thank you and i yield back. >> i thank the gentleman from texas for his statement. and i now recognize, the gentleman, mr. vela, for his questioning. >> thank you. i want to thank the leadership of our committee and our subcommittee for bringing the public's attention to this real tragedy. sometimes life goes on and we forget how significant and what kind of an impact these kinds how they s have and affect the people of the certain communities where they happen. i, too, wish to extend my condolences to the people of west, texas, and to the families of those who were killed and to those that were injured. i have a lot of questions arising from today's hearings. i hope that this subcommittee will continue to delve into this very important matter so hat we can ensure that a tragedy like this never happens again. so given time limitations, i think where i'd like to start s by taking the example of refinery in let's say corpus christi, texas. it's my understanding that from the federal regulatory standpoint, the agencies that would have jurisdiction over safety issues that companies -- refinery like that would be the e.p.a., osha. are there any others? >> well, depending on the holdings at the refinery and the location of the refinery. it could be a cfats facility. if it is on the water it could be regulated under the coast guard's maritime transportation mtsa. y program, if it's a mittsa facility, it's exempt from cfats. if it's a cfats facility it's because it's not on the water. >> we're using the example i'm talking by which is a refinery which is basically on the water, then the three federal agencies that would have jurisdiction over safety issues would be osha, e.p.a. and mtsa, for example -- >> yes. >> and if we had a refinery not close to the water, the agencies that would have jurisdiction over such would be osha, e.p.a. and cfats? >> i think that's accurate. >> would there be any other federal agencies out there in this world that would have jurisdiction over these things? >> not that immediately pops into my head. >> and relating back to the incident at hand or facilities like this one in west, texas, is it those same three agencies that have jurisdiction, over, for example, the west fertilizer plant? >> well, with respect to i think e.p.a. was involved in regulation at the west plant. i think osha certainly has some role there. i certainly don't want to speak for other agencies. with regard to d.h.s., based on the apparent chemical holdings at the facility, the facility did not meet its obligation to report to d.h.s. whether such a report of those holdings through what we call the top screen process would have ultimately resulted in the issuance of a final tier, reflecting it was a facility at high risk of terrorist attack. that's what the cfats program is about, as you know, preventing -- fostering security measures at facilities at high risk of terrorist attack is unclear without more information about what holdings were in place before the explosion. t for it to come into the -- into d.h.s. and cfats program, it would have submitted had a filing and been judged ultimately through the process to have been high risk facility. >> so would osha have jurisdiction over a facility like this one in west, texas? >> my understanding is they would, but i'm not an expert on osha regulations. >> so relating -- let's talk about a -- let's assume we're talking about a refinery in central texas that cfats shares jurisdiction with e.p.a. and osha. can you give us an idea of how your agency coordinates with osha and the e.p.a. to ensure hat incidents like this do not occur? >> what we're doing with e.p.a. and we will also be looking to with osha is to share our respective databases so if there is a facility that is, you know, known to one of us but not the other, we will be cognizant of that and ensure we can work with the facility to bring it in to compliance with the appropriate regulatory framework. >> so we had a list of every refunnyry in the country over which e.p.a., osha and cfats had jurisdiction over, would you be able to come in and give us an idea of what kind of interaction the three agencies had over concerning each of those facilities on such a list? >> i think that would be a possibility. i would be remiss if i didn't mention that the executive order issued today is designed to foster among other things the possibility of a shared database such as that. one of the things that the working group that's been chartered by the president that the interagency working group will be looking at is the feasibility of having such a consolidated database of chemical facilities. >> are you saying to date the coordination between the three agencies when we're talking have a facility like that been lacking or how would you describe of state of things up until today? >> my sense is that the coordination has been occurring in the field. so our chemical security inspectors and regional commanders have been working with their counterparts at the local and regional levels to, you know, to discuss and deconflict and coordinate their activities at facilities. there is not at this point a consolidated national database of chemical facilities and that's something we're going to look at going forward. >> i think i've run out of time. >> i didn't want to interrupt the gentleman while he was on a roll. >> well then i yield back. >> ok. the chairman now recognizes the distinguished woman from indianapolis, mrs. brooks. >> thank you, mr. chairman, for allowing me to participate in today's hearing. i do chair the subcommittee on emergency preparedness, response and communication, and so that's in part what i would like to talk with you about. but this particular topic is of particular interest to me as this unfortunate, incredibly devastating disaster affected some of my constituents. kevin, one of the first responders, who was killed. he's a brother to janette who lives in my district. and having worked with the firefighter community, law enforcement community, i ask unanimous consent to submit a letter that has been provided from mr. white for the record, the brother-in-law. >> so ordered. >> thank you, mr. chairman. mr. white does point out in his letter that the first responders' assessment of the situation in west could have differed significantly if they had known exactly what was on that site. mr. white thinks -- a chemist, by the way -- thinks that the first responders with the right information would have potentially been evacuating those residents of west rather than fighting that fire. as u.s. chemical safety board investigation noted west volunteer firefighters were not made aware of the explosion hazard from the ammonium nitrate stored at west fertilizer and were caught in harm's way when the blast occurred. now, we all know -- and there have been far too many both natural an man-made disasters in this country, but we rely every day on the heroic actions of our brave first responders who protect us when they understand the potential harm and the dangers beyond the fire -- beyond the fire itself before they run into a disaster like this and to be trained properly as to how to protect themselves and our communities. and my question, mr. wulf, is the in 1986, the emergency planning and community right to created or ecra, was to help communities plan like is regarding hazardous chemicals. regarding emergency planning and the community's right to know reporting on hazardous and toxic chemicals. according to the e.p.a., west, texas, was in compliance with this reporting requirement, but did -- my question to you, did d.h.s. have access to this epcra information on west, and f so, how was it used? >> i am not aware we had access to it, but going forward, among the things that we are certainly looking at as we talk with state agencies and state homeland security advisors is ensuring that information is shared back and forth between the department, our cfats facility information and information held by state agencies. >> so what is your plan, though, to make sure you're accessing this epcra information in communities across the country? >> to the extent that the information is held at the state level and i guess in this instance it was held by the state emergency response commission, i think we will work with the state homeland security advisors to ensure that the information is flowing to us and similarly, that information we hold aboutle facilities that have holdings of high risk chemicals flows to the states and localities. so we've been engaging in discussions and sharing information with state agencies and certainly intend to double down on those efforts going forward. >> was there actually an unwillingness to -- or a lack of knowledge and the need to leverage that kind of nformation before this incident? why does this seem to be a new step for d.h.s.? >> there certainly wasn't an unwillingness. and outreach, getting the word out about cfats and about the reporting requirements of facilities in the chemical sector was a high priority of the department. there have been finite resources, and we've had competing priorities, the need, for instance, to work with facilities that have submitted top screens, have come into the program to develop their security vulnerability assessments and their site security plans and to conduct inspections. at the same time we have over the course of the program conducted over 11,000 outreach engagements, including with state and local communities. so i think we've been doing that sort of sharing on a sort of regional, localized basis. but we are certainly committed to ensuring that we have national protocalls in place to make sure that that happens. >> i have one further question. i was u.s. attorney when department of homeland security was set up, and so i'm familiar with the position -- and when you talk about a lack of resources, what are the positions within d.h.s. that actually are responsible for this in states? is there a d.h.s. position in jurisdictions that is responsible for this outreach to the -- whether it's those -- chemical communities or others, what is the title of that position? >> well, within the cfats program, we have regional commanders and district commanders who are responsible on the chemical side. but more broadly, my broader organization, the office of infrastructure protection manages the protected security advisor program, and those protected security advisors are the ones who do the more broad-based outreach and liaison with folks at the state level and look at critical infrastructure. >> and how many protected security advisors does the department of homeland security have? >> approximately 100, but i would have to get back to you with the exact number there. >> ok. thank you. i yield back. thank you. >> i thank the gentlelady from indiana. m going to ask a couple of follow-up questions myself, we have the panelists that we have before us. there's a couple of issues i'd like to further explore. one of them goes to the concept about reach as we're trying to do it. let me say, mr. wulf, that i do appreciate there is a big undertaking, and you quote the numbers of 44,000 top screens and other kinds of things. and i think there had been some significant accomplishment in the form of the beginning, recognition, particularly by many in the industry, about the desire to try to regulate -- not regulate -- to identify and versee the presence of these chemicals, the dangerous chemicals. you have great cooperation from many of the folks in the industry and they're looking for more follow-up having already taken great steps, made gret investments. they're looking for the kind of timely follow-up on the efforts that you've already undertaken with these top screens. i am concerned about testimony that mr. caldwell presented in his written testimony -- and if i'm correct, mr. caldwell, you're talking about estimates just to continue to do some of these cfats oversights of anywhere from seven to nine more years before it could even e completed with this process. seven to nine more years. can we wait nine more years for this kind of identityification of critical information? >> you know, i would note at the outset that seven to nine years in my view and the view of the department is not an acceptable time frame for getting through the mass of site security plans that we have on hand and we're committed to ensuring that the pace of those authorizations, inspections and approvals continues to pick up. i'm happy to say although there is -- there's more to do, we have turned a corner and begun to make progress. at this time last year we have yet to give grant final approval to our first site security plan. we are coming up on 200 plans that will be granted final approval. we have authorized the mid-range step about 50 site security -- >> well, ok. you're talking about 200. then you have literally thousands to do. >> yep. >> it's a great undertaking but 200 of the thousands, i begin to questions sometimes the process is and of itself well-conceived if in fact you can recognize the fact that the end is so difficult to realize in a reasonable period of time. you can imagine how a business who has cooperated with you and is waiting for years for a follow-up can be tremendously frustrated. now, let me talk because today's thing is about the outliers. i'm just talking about those who are compliant and working with you. and when we use the word outliers, there is a suggestion that somehow these are people that are looking to dodge the system or to get away. i think the truth of the matter is and sort of crystallized to me in testimony and commentary that we got from a variety of other people who were interested in this and one of them came from a small farmer and basically said the truth of the matter is we want to be compliant, but we're overwhelmed. we're overwhelmed with authorities first and just managing the facility. oftentimes the person who was responsible for all compliance is the person who is responsible for running the operation at the facility. we don't have time to take a day off, to go to a meeting at the local agricultural association. in fact, most probably aren't even members of the agricultural association. but your outreach is going but it's just sutching the core and we're missing a whole number of eople. they're confused. it was stated. the individual in west, texas, thought he was in compliance. what he was in community with was the state regulation. they have osha that may stop in. they have the e.p.a. that may stop in. they have you who may stop in. they have the state who may stop in. it can become overwhelming. so don't we have a responsibility to just to coordinate a little bit better and have a single point of contact for some of these kinds of things particularly with regard to the very specific question about how much we have in the form of certain chemicals on your property? >> i think you're right that we do and we're committed to doing just that. the executive order that the president has signed incorporates a pilot through with we are going to work our interagency partners, the e.p.a., osha, a.t.f. to validate best practices, to look at doing joint outreach, to look at -- >> because my time is expiring and i want to ask mr. caldwell one specific question. pilots and other kinds of things, i get it. i know you're working. but the bottom line is there is a lot of information already out there. osha's already correcting it. state facilities we are trying to remake the this very information. haiend thatat time it is and they'll tell me how to build a watch. just go and do thengbout the these findingem,the stem and making ae'ing with e.p.a., a.t.f. and with osha. g anin your report, anyo a more syatic you used, a systemic response or plan? rethere were a lot of -- was a lot of outreach going ong maintag statisticon that, bu weren't of that feedback orndation when ea to see for meur rige or are they doin it the right and t recommendation and is itthe m how do youct tit here, idn loud it is partch, ond get their resp o t your and a not tryinging for ou, i no.ir follow-up w information b ris analysis by september 9. mr. chairman, i consent foaopof the letter to submitted into the record.given that the committee received, at least to my knowledge, no notification of this effort, how many of these letters were sent out. and what is the universe of facilities that receive these letters? and did it go to facilities that have already been tiered? did it go to facilities that have been previously tiered? can you just enlighten us a bit about these letters? >> yeah. those letters, the bulk of them came out of our effort to do the cross-walk with e.p.a.'s database and to identify facilities that were in the e.p.a. database and may not have filed top screens. it was an effort to try to bring into the fold noncompliant facilities. >> basically doing some sort of reconciliation? >> that's right. another small segment of that were letters sent out to facilities in texas that we received through our mutual sharing with the state of texas and we sent letters to state level executives in an effort with the help of the fertilizer institute and agricultural retailers association to reach down to that level and sort of fill that gap. >> once you received your feedback after september 9, would you reach back to the committee and give us a sense of what the feedback has been in that reconciliation, just give us a sense of whether we have far more work to do in or regard or, you know, just a few out there that's going to be important? >> absolutely. >> mr. caldwell, given d.h.s.'s approach deciding whether a facility is high risk, would the west, texas, facility had it reported to d.h.s. be considered high risk and thereby covered by the cfats rule? if not, why not? and based on this committee's research, it appears that different states have different rules governing the handling, storage and transfer of various chemicals, including ammonium nitrate. does d.h.s. work with the states to compile information about facilities that may have certain chemicals covered in the crferings fats rule to determine if the facilities may or may not reported holdings to d.h.s.? >> ms. clarke, let me say something first. i quoted a figure in terms of inspections they've done since you quoted some of the figures from the i.g. and from mr. wulf's statement of 350. if you look at the percentage of inspections for the tier 1 of the highest risk facilities, it's actually quite a bit higher. they're concentrating on the higher risk facilities. i'd also like to say in my opening statement i did say it's quite possible that the west facility would not have been considered again because when they look at whether to -- when they tour a facility, the most important fact is the consequences. so they look at figures like population. i just throw a question out there for mr. wulf to answer. what we're not sure about is whether when we're doing the calculation of consequences and they look at the potential casualties, do they use an overall figure like the population density of that area or do they use something more tactical like looking at that more specific location, is there a school, is there a nursing home, is there something like that that's in the near facility? and that's a question i don't quite know. obviously that would get to the heart of what the potential casualties might be. again, just thinking out loud. you may have some rural areas where the population density is quite low but that hool facility may be near a facility so that in school hours you could have quite a population there that could be put at risk depending on the vicinity. thank you. >> so that's proximity that you're talking about? >> correct. and mr. wulf can maybe address whether they do that level of analysis or not. and then the last question of working with states. again, we saw most of that which is focused on industry and i think to be honest they were looking at who are the really big facilities out there, how do you reach them quickly? it's through the national associations and it wasn't going through necessarily the state route. although as mr. wulf said, they protective security advisors working with the state government. every state is organized a little bit differently. as i said, could be regulated differently. maybe a state would regulate this under their department of agriculture or something like that. other ones might be under their equivalent of their environmental agency or could be under public safety everything. >> another factor i just want to sort of get your take on it, proximity to rail. so you have chemicals that are being railed in as in the case of west, texas, wouldn't that be sort of a flag that, you know, that should be part of the calculation of, you know, the threat to a particular environment? >> yeah. the regulations that are written are pretty specific to the facility. as mr. wulf pointed out, several facilities pointed they put these chemicals offsite. they're not storing as much on site because these are in railroad cars in some other place. i don't remember. there was an explosion in canada within the last month. i don't remember what chemical that was. chemicals on railcars can present a threat and so how they're handled is important. again, it is a complex issue. i think the transportation security agency has regulatory authority over the security of those things in transit. >> thank you. i know the gentlelady asked for unanimous consent to enter a letter into the record and so without objection, so ordered. the chair now recognizes mr. flores. >> i thank chairman meehan and director wulf, mr. called well, thank you for -- mr. caldwell, thank you for joining us. you told the global security newswire that cfats is absolutely shared responsibility. you further noted, quote, facilities that are in the business of dealing with high-risk chemicals have an obligation to do that reporting just as i have an obligation to file our taxes with the i.r.s. the i.r.s. doesn't necessarily come back -- come out and look for us, end quote. so as you've said, i think also most stakeholders would agree that building resilience across the chemical sector is not something that a single agency or single company, industry or even government can do by itself. just as i agree with what you said. with that said, how do you envision d.h.s.'s role among all the players that are involved in this effort? and to what extent do you believe that d.h.s. should take the lead in this effort? >> i think with chemical, with respect to chemical facilities security, d.h.s. does have an obligation to lead in this area. and we're committed to doing just that. we are part of a broader picture on an interagency basis, and i think that's reflected in the president's sfleck tif order signed today - executive order signed today. but we're committed to doing all that we can to get the word out. but as i said, it is a shared responsibility. businesses do have an obligation to know their regulatory responsibilities. we'll continue to do all we can. we'll redouble our efforts to ensure that we get the word out there as broadly as possible, including to folks at the state and local levels to include first responders. we're absolutely committed to doing that. >> thank you, mr. chairman. i have no further questions. >> thank you. the chair now recognizes mr. vela. do you have follow-up questions? >> [inaudible] >> yes. that's e had -- accurate. an such a fashion -- accusatory fashion. going forward i know we have a lot of work to do with regard to this issue to make sure we figure out -- what the federal government could have done, if anything, to prevent this accident and just as importantly to make sure that in the future we prevent any further tragedies like that. that was the purpose of the question. >> absolutely. >> i thank the gentleman. the chair now recognizes mrs. brooks. >> thank you, mr. chairman. a bit of a follow-up on my previous question regarding the resources, mr. wulf, that you have dedicated to this. you testified that d.h.s. representatives have participated in your written stimony in more than 252 meetings and held more than 4,600 introductory meetings with owners and operators of cfats regulators. those are impressive tatistics, but yet how is it possible, and maybe it's because of your resource issues that still so many state and local authorities and so many small facilities say they never heard from the department about cfats. what is it that is needed in touch and make sure that our state and local authorities and the smaller facilities, you know, become more familiar of what these obligations are? >> i think that what's important to do and what we have -- what we have been doing is to start to do more targeted, more systematic outreach and to ensure that we're fubbling -- funneling through folks like the state homeland security advisors, through state emergency response commissions and sort of strategically ensuring that the message gets out at kind of the state and local levels. that includes working through industry groups at the state levels and we can work with our stakeholders at the national sociation level as well to ensure that we get that done. so, you know, we are committed to getting the job done. you know, the resources are what they are. we have certainly a lot on our plate, but we have very hardworking, committed folks on the team who get up every day looking to ensure that we safeguard our high-risk chemical facilities from terrorist attacks and prevent incidents such as the ones that occurred at west, texas, from occurring again. we are continuing to keep at it, and on the outreach front, to work strategically to get the word out more broadly. >> having worked with the one person i'm familiar in indiana, and that's all i believe indiana had, at least when i was u.s. attorney, has there been any discussion about reallocation of resources within the department and within your department specifically to provide you with more resources to make re, pearblely post-west -- especially post-west incident to try to expedite the efforts of outreach? >> you know, we have not had extensive discussions in that respect. i do think that as we get in to a cycle of compliance inspection activity which is actually going to begin in september, we're going to begin having inspections of the facilities that received their final site security plan approvals as we move forward to implement the ammonium nitrate security program, we're going to have to look at the resources as we also continue to try to ensure that we keep up the pace of strategic and targeted outreach. i would say another thing, if i could add, that would be helpful to ensuring facilities understand that the program is here to stay would be for congress to authorize the program. i think that would go a long way to helping us get that word out to facilities that, you know, may not have received that word. and also to provide an important measure of stability to our industry stakeholders who as they consider looking to make significant investments in security measures and to argue for budget dollars in a constrained environment even on the private sector side can speak to their companies about the importance of the program nd the need to comply with its regulatory framework. >> thank you for that suggestion. want to just thank the men and women who do that work around the country. it's been received very favorably. there just aren't enough of them. thank you. >> i thank the gentlelady, and i thank this panel for your -- for your presence here today and, mr. wulf, i know you got a big job to do. i've asked you to look at the specific issue with regard to the outliers and give us some t ricks -- metrics and timeline on how to do it and i know the issue of re-authorization of this program will soon be front and center. we want to support you in these efforts. it's our objective is to work with you, not against you, but we got to ask some tough questions and awful lot of the times performance is going to be the biggest part of the equation. you would be, i'm sure, the first to admit that performance to this point, albeit a great allenge, has raised a lot of fodder for questions. and we put a lot of money into this, and we got to be able to start to demonstrate the ability to narrow so that the effort is matched with productivity as i said at the outset. i thank you. there may be some committee members who will ask further questions with written questions. if they are submitted we ask that you do your best to be timely in your response to them. i thank you for your presence here today. >> thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> so i dismiss the first panel and the members of the a ommittee will now take moment while we invite our second panel to join us. >> the chair is very grateful for the presence of our panel. the time u for taking to sit through the first line of questioning and one of the opportunities and advantages -- although i'm sure you may have wanted to ask questions yourself, as you may be able to make comment with regard to some of the issues that were discussed, and i invite you to do that, but allow me to take a moment to introduce each of you . we are joined by mr. donnie dippel. he's the president for the exas agricultural industries association. previously mr. dippel served in the texas department of agriculture from 1988 to 2002. ending in 2002 as assistant commissioner for pesticide programs. before joining the texas department of agriculture, mr. dippel worked as a manager and commercial pesticide service r for a farm center. mr. paul derig is the environmental health and safety nager for the j.r. simplot company. he works to support regulatory affairs, functions and compliance within the company and represents j.r. simplot in trade organizations and activities. mr. timothy scott is the chief security officer and corporate director of emergency services and security for the dow chemical company and a member of dow's corporate crisis management team. mr. scott currently serves on the advisory board for subworking group on kellcal security. previously, mr. scott served on the executive committee of the chemical sector coordinating council at the department of homeland security. and lastly, we're jond by mr. shawn molten who is the director of open government policy program at the center of effective government, a nonpartisan watchdog group. previously, mr. moulton served for several years as a research fellow, an employee, contract employee at the united states environmental protection agency. i want to thank all of you for being here. your full written statements will appear in the record, and i ask you do your best to contain your testimony to the five minutes. we look forward to engaging you in questions. so the chair now recognizes mr. dippel for five minutes. >> my name is donnie dippel, president of texas ag industries association. subcommittee chairman meehan, ranking subcommittee clarke and distinguished members, thank you, today, for letting texas ag industries to testify at this meeting. before i begin my testimony, i'd like to extend my thoughts and prayers for the texans who experienced such great loss as a result of the west, texas, explosion. texas ag industries association membership is comprised of manufacturers, distributors, retail dealers and allied companies involved in the sale of fertilizer, agriculture chemicals and related services. t.a.i. is to advocate, influence and provide services to support its members in the quest to foster a sustainable business environment while being productive stewards of agriculture. t.a.i. has always worked with its industry members and nonmembers to help them in their compliance issues. one institute is a not for profit resource center which provides materials, develops commonsense solutions to new regulation requirements and monitors enforcement. as stated earlier, i served as president of t.a.i. since 2003. prior to coming to texas ag industries, i worked with the exas department of agriculture serving as assistant commissioner for pesticide programs. prior to the texas department of agriculture, i managed a farm and ranch retail business, similar to something to the west, texas, facility. i certainty currently serve on the texas fertilizer committee. t.a.i. holds a minimum of five education programs a year to help our industry be apprised of current practices and concerns in crop production, laws, regulations and environmental issues. it has always been a concern that we do not have more dealer participation at our educational meetings. after surveying the dealer membership to find out ways to improve participation, we found that many retail dealers cannot leave their business to tend an all-day meeting without closing the doors for the entire day. small dealers also do not have additional employees to operate their businesses if they're not there. i believe this is also a problem we see in regulatory compliance issues. small retail dealers have -- may have one or two individuals that are trying to run a business and regulatory issues may not be their main concern each day in operating their facilities, nor are they always aware of the extensive list of regulations that pertain to their business. n contrast, distributors and manufacturers have employees to make sure they are in compliance with all the laws and regulations and that best management practices are implemented. after the fire and explosion at west, texas, fertilizer, our calls were full on what caused the tragedy. next came several calls from the manager at west fertilizer company. as you can imagine, he had a tremendous difficulty even talking about what happened that night. being from a small town, he most likely knew every one of the individuals who perished in the explosion. on one of the calls he expressed his concern that the news was saying that west fertilizer company was not registered with the u.s. department of homeland security. he told me, i had the certificate hanging on my office wall to say we were registered to handle ammonium nitrate. i asked him if he was sure that they had completed the top screen with d.h.s. he said that he had inspectors that came to his plant to check the security of ammonium nitrate and checked his sales records and then i realized he was referring from the inspectors of the texas feed and fer lieser control service. they estimate that approximately 546 retail dealers in the state of texas and approximately 129 are registered to handle ammonium nitrate. texas law provides that the office of the state chemist with the responsibility for ensuring that facilities handle ammonium nitrate are able to secure the product at all times from theft and misuse and that they have records of every sale. in addition to the state laws, once homeland security finalized the ammonium nitrate security program, they should know where every facility selling ammonium nitrate is located as this will require anyone selling ammonium nitrate to register with them. after the tragedy at west fertilizer company, t.a.i. mailed out a letter to every fertilizer retail dealer in the state asking them to make sure they're complying with all the regulations pertaining to their institute. we're able to make sure they're compliant assessment tool. it helps identify the specific activities in their business and it proveeds them with a summary of the regulatory requirements and offers best management practices. it also made the compliance assessment tool available to retail dealers across the u.s., through our national associations, the fertilizer institute and agricultural retailers association. after sending the letter, we received many calls from retail dealers which led us to discover the confusion between registering with d.h.s. and the texas fertilizer and feed control service was very prevalent. the first question i asked was, do you handle ammonium nitrate? and if so, are you registered with d.h.s.? we have worked with several retail dealers to help them register with homeland security. i have several more requests on my desk. one of the big problems we've run into getting dealers required is they have a secure email address. many of the retail dealers use ail address such as hotmail, gmail, godaddy and others that are not considered secure. the retail dealers also have to be able to identify the longitude and latitude location of their business. the top screen registration offers a program to help find the location but many time these coordinate nates are not correct and not accept -- coordinates are not correct and not accepted by the program. the attempts have been helped over the phone. many of the retail dealers computer skills are limited and they have been very frustrated as -- and have asked to quit or have to quit the registration process to set up a new email address or find out why the program is not taking their coordinates. even though ammonium nitrate is an east texas fertilizer and very little is used west of the interstate 35, the area is simply too big to allow to help each one of these individual retail dealers that has problems registering. the situation i have outlined i do not believe are unique to texas. there are many, many small retail dealers like west fertilizer company throughout the u.s. one suggestion i would have is that d.h.s. works with the local inspectors, the officials such as texas feed and fertilizer control service and through state associations such as t.a.i. to come up with a process to help these small facilities. several of the retail dealers have chosen to use the institute compliance services. many of them will use their insurance companies and some will do it on their own. they'll continue to work with the agriculture industries association to help them with their commines. again, i thank you for the invitation to testify at this hearing. i'll be glad to answer any of your questions. >> thank you, mr. dippel. mr. derig, you're now recognized for your testimony. >> thank you, chairman meehan, ranking member clarke, and distinguished members of the subcommittee. as introduced, my name is paul derig, and i'm here to testify on behalf of the agricultural retailers association. a.r.a. is a trade association which represents america's agricultural retailers and distributers of crop inputs, equipment and services. on behalf of a.r.a., our members and in particular myself i also want to express heart felt condolences and prayers for the people of west after this tragic incident that they've had to endure. a.r.a. members are scattered throughout all 50 states and remains in size -- range in size from small family-held larger companies er-owned with owners of retail outlets. i happen to be the manager for a very diversified agriculture company, and we operate approximately 100 farm retail distribution centers throughout our network. during the time that i've been in the retail business, which covers the span of 35 years, i played a dual role, also as a public responder, so i understand what's happening those families and the loss that they've had for the firefighters that they had injured. amount spent a large of time, because when e.p.a. -- >> just a reminder you can continue to watch this live online at c-span.org. the house is gaveling in next. we'll take you there live here on c-span. the speaker: the house will be in order. the prayer will be offered by our chaplain, father conroy. chaplain conroy: let us pray. god of the universe, we give you thanks for giving us another day. we ask your blessing upon those who have worked so hard these past few days. many issues remain and their solutions continue to elude. not all are completely satisfied but help us all to proceed graciously, remaining vigilant for those values held most dear while being just. in the days that come, help each member to understand well and interpret positively as they are able the positions of those with whom they disagree. grant to each the wisdom of solomon and to us all the faith and confidence to know that no matter how difficult things appear to be, you continue to walk with our nation as you have done for over two centuries. may all that is done today in the people's house be for your greater honor and glory, amen. the speaker: the chair has examined the journal of the last day's proceedings and announces to the house his approval thereof. pursuant to clause 1 of rule 1, the journal stands approve the pledge of allegiance today will be led by the gentleman from new york, mr. maloney. mr. maloney: i pledge allegiance to the flag of the united states of america and to the republic for which it stands, one nation, under god, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. the chair will entertain up to 15 requests for one-minute of the on each side aisle. for what purpose does the gentleman from virginia rise? without objection. >> mr. speaker, we are now in the fourth week of the civilian furloughs at the department of defense that are wreaking havoc on the national security and the lives of patriotic men and women across the country. i've said repeatedly the decisions that led us here were not the result of strategic analysis but another consequence of misguided cuts to our national defense. a few moments ago, we were in a hearing in the armed services committee and a high ranking member of the department of the pentagon said that the suggestion that we now know the president made for sequestration was a dumb idea. it was certainly a wrong idea. it was wrong when the president signed it into law. what's worse is the current position of the white house that even if the house and senate can reach an agreement to fix sequestration and stop hese furloughs, that they will not agree to it unless we give the president all the spending he wants in every area of government and increase in taxes in all the areas of government he wants. mr. speaker, this is wrong. we need to address sequestration now for national defense and stop it before it's too late. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman from new york is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, last week i met with rich lawry, the editor of "national review" whose new book urges the republican party to embrace an aspirational agenda of president lincoln. his book calls to mind the words of sheila bexar a george w. bush administration official who in february urged her fellow republicans to remember that from lincoln's transcontinental railroad to eisenhower's highway system, republicans have understood that investing in critical infrastructure projects creates jobs and expands the economy. and yet the appropriations bill that was on the floor this week would have cut $2 billion from the department of transportation. it was a total rejection of the lincoln-eisenhower tradition. e have spent $87 billion rebuilding the infrastructure of afghanistan and just to -- just approved $5 billion more. according to the united states inspector general, supporters of the taliban and al qaeda are getting contracts and far too much will be wasted due o-- due to insufficient oversight. this, mr. speaker is appalling and it's time to do nation building here at home. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from oklahoma seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman from oklahoma is recognized for one minute. >> according to numbers released by the congressional budget office, obamacare's now ing to cost the american taxpayers nearly $1.4 trillion. now with their national debt setting at $16.8 trillion and rising every single day, i must ask my colleagues who support this, can america really afford this? mr. mullin: mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oklahoma yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from new york seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman from new york is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, the dangers of a nuclear iran are really and represent one of the greatest threats to our country and to our allies. in addition to the exowe tension threat to our al-- exowe sention threat to our ally, israel, propping up the syrian regime, arming hezbollah and undermining a fragile peace in iraq is iran. they're pursuing an active nuclear capability which we cannot allow. while we have strong laws on the books already, we can and must go even further to isolate the arraignian regime and the major sources of funding that support it. the nuclear iran prevention act will cripple that country's energy sector and tighten sanctions on iran's radical leadership and human rights violators and for the first time the bill authorizes the president to impose sanctions maintains y that commercial ties with iran. without question, we must come together to prevent iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon, and i urge my colleagues in the senate to join us in sending a clear message to the iranians that we'll stand firmly with our friend, israel, until the iran regime rejoins the peaceful community of nations and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from virginia seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman from virginia is recognized for one minute. mr. wolf: mr. speaker, i've been asking a series of questions over the last three weeks about what happened in benghazi last september. after a year of investigation, none of the questions have been told to the publicly. not one. day before the last congress recesses for the august recess. history will determine whether the american people ever learned the truth. yesterday i focused my questions on the other u.s. facility that was attacked that night, the c.i.a. annex. today i only have one question. who in the white house knew what was going on in the annex? that's it. one question. who knew? the chief of staff, the deputy national security advisor and current c.i.a. director john brennan? something is just not right. it is time to honor, to honor both those who are killed and the survivors by creating a house select committee. and in the words of the editorial page of "the wall street journal," let benghazi chips fall. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlelady from california seek recognition? without objection, the gentlelady from california is recognized for one minute. ms. chu: a year ago at the temple in wisconsin were peacefully getting ready. that was shattered when a neo nazi man began shooting to anyone who was in his path. i ron the six victims of this senseless massacre. -- i honor the six victims in this senless massacre. -- senseless massacre. you will never be forgotten. american seeks have been the target of discrimination and violence. the word terrorist was sprawled against the wall of a temple in riverside. in the memory of oak creek, we will recommit to fighting against intolerance wherever and whenever it occurs so that the lives of those six brave souls will not be lost in vain. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from virginia, mr. cantor, seek recognition? mr. cantor: mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman from virginia is recognized for one minute. mr. cantor: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, i rise in support of the measures we're bringing to the floor this week aimed at stopping government abuse. with millions of working middle-class americans struggling, house republicans have chosen to lead on the issues that matter to them. we focused on creating jobs, lowering energy prices, offering children a better education and lessening the burden of regulations and red tape on their lives. and this week we're holding government accountable to them by increasing transparency, cutting waste and giving them new protections from an out-of-control bureaucracy. our plan is to stop the reckless waste of taxpayer dollars. with new controls for federal agencies spending and to give new powers to our citizens so government bureaucrats can be held accountable for any political intimidation or poor customer service that may occur. these reforms are reforms that our country needs, because many in washington simply have forgotten the most important principle, that the federal government works for the people and not the other way around. i'm surprised that the democratic leaders have urged opposition to several of these commonsense measures. why do they want to forbid citizens from transparently recording conversations with federal regulators? you have to ask, why do they want to keep paying out hefty bonuses to well-compensated executives in these times of fiscal straint -- stress and economic restraint? why is it that the opposition leaders want to keep paying senior federal officials who are under investigation for serious ethical wrongdoing? why do they want to use taxpayer dollars to do that, it just defies logic, mr. speaker. the package of bills being brought to the floor this week are common sense, and they should easily garner bipartisan support. there's simply no reason for members of either party to support megabonuses, expensive paid vacations and zero accountability measures for washington bureaucrats. we are here to represent the people, not the government. working families in america want to trust their government and they want to rebuild their faith in our economy. these bills are a much-needed step in the right direction for accomplishing this goal. i urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this commonsense legislation, and i urge the senate to join us in this effort and not waste time while these abuses continue. thank you and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from virginia yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman from massachusetts is recognized for one minute. mr. mcgovern: i rise to congratulate taft early learning school in massachusetts for being named a bronze award winner in the healthier school challenge. they've created healthier school environments through promotion of healthy nutrition and physical activity, a program part of michelle obama's let's get fit program. they had a salad bar grant which offers fresh fruits and vegetables as part of lunch. they incorporated more whole grains and beans. they hired an experience cook to make this happen and offer physical activity every day which required the crea ate tift. i want to -- creativity. i want to thank the principal, the teachers, administrative staff, students, parents in improving the health environment at taft early learning school. this is a good accomplishment. i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from massachusetts yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? mr. johnson: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman from texas is recognized for one minute. mr. johnson: thank you, mr. speaker. in may the i.r.s. proved to the american people it cannot be trusted to fairly enforce laws. as if intentional targeting of americans was not troubling enough, obamacare will give the i.r.s. even more power in just a short month. that's right. the agency that bullied americans for exercising their right of free speech will be the same agency involved in enforcing health care. patients and their doctors should make the decisions that work best for them, not washington and much less the i.r.s. allowing the i.r.s. to enforce obamacare opens the door to more abuse, targeting and intimidation of americans. that's why i join my colleagues in support of a commonsense bill, h.r. 2009, keep the i.r.s. off the health care act, that will stop the i.r.s. from enforcing or implementing any part of obamacare. it's time for our friends across the aisle to listen to the american people. keep the i.r.s. out of our lives and out of our health care. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee seek recognition? the gentleman from tennessee is recognized for one minute. mr. cohen: thank you, mr. speaker. memphis, tennessee, and the unit states lost a great citizen, a legend on sunday when lois passed away. proterm he speaker emeritus, the longest serving in the tennessee general assembly. she was a great orator and the go-to person on civil rights issues, women issues, children issues, education issues and anything about memphis. she served with distinction and recognized all over the country. the delta sigma thetas was glad to have her as a member. she was respected in the national conference of state legislateures. a flag flew over the capitol which i have -- legislatures. a flag flew over the capitol. the march on washington, she participated. hers was a life well lived. she will be missed by those in memphis and me. thank you, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from colorado seek recognition? does the gentleman seek unanimous consent? >> yes. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized, without objection, for one minute. >> mr. speaker, i rise to honor cheryl of the usda rural development office in colorado. mr. gardner: she will retire next month as the northeast area director after 30 years of dedicated service. a fourth generation yuma county resident, cheryl studied at jones real estate college earning a graduate degree in public administration. after getting her start at ray state bank, she took a job with the department of housing but it was at the rural development office where she spent 30 years as an invaluable asset to her service. her rural background, education and true passion for her work gave wind to cheryl's impressive career. outside of work, cheryl's been an active member of her community, board member, small business developments, a wealth of professional experience she shared with communities throughout the eastern plains. married to her husband for 41 years. town meetings, there's not a single, single community on the eastern plains that cheryl's work hasn't impacted. her legacy will live on on every main street of eastern colorado. thank you, cheryl, for your service. yield back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman rise? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection thembing gentleman from florida is recognized for one minute. >> i rise today to support funding for the national institutes of health and stop the mindless and automatic equestration cuts. earlier this month i met with carlos an czyz and james, two young men from florida, we talked about their sisters who suffer from cystic fibrosis and ow budget cuts to n.i. himplet will affect their lives. cystic fibrosis is a chronic disease with no cure. n.i.h. scoveries from have helped those with cystic fibrosis, there is much more we can do, including finding a cure for this disease in our lifetime. r. garcia: because of n.i.h.'s groundbreaking research into this disease and others, i ask my colleagues to support n.i.h. we must secure our nation's future by making investments in our nation's health. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from oregon seek recognition? >> i i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. walden: i met with a friend of mine a colonel in the united states air force, linda served as a member of my service academy nominations board, helping me find honorable young men and women to serve our country in our academies this time, we discussed a much different issue. last year, linda lost her husband, u.s. air force major duane sind to pancreatic cancer. it's a disease with a low survival rate. we owe it to her and others with the disease to find a cure. last year, congress passed and the president signed the recalcitrant cancer research act which helps incentivize research and treatment nor horrible disease and others like it. there's still much more work to be done but we are hopeful we can build on this effort to find treatments and cures to help families natide the speaker pro tempore: the yields back. for what purpose does the gentlelady from new york seek recognition? does the gentlelady seek unanimous consent? without objection, the gentlelady from new york is recognized for one minute. ms. maloney: the american people have said loud and clear that what they want the most from congress is jobs and what is congress giving them? jabs. threats to bring the government to a halt. threats to let the united states treasury default. threats to slash the funding for mass transit that brings people to their jobs. and the tentacles of sequestration will strangle growth even more. the congressional budget office estimates that the sequestration will cost us 900,000 fewer jobs next year. it's time to stop playing politics with our economy and for the people and we need to provide a strong work force, a strong infrastructure, manufacturing sector, we need to provide a living wage to grow the middle class and strengthen america's standing as a leader in education and pioneering research. but still our friends on the other side of the aisle are marching to the tune of their own drum when what they should be listening to is the cry of the american people for more jobs. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman from ohio is recognized for one minute. >> i rise in strong support of the legislation the house is considering this week. mr. johnson: people of eastern and southeastern ohio sent me to congress to get government off their backs, to allow them to have jobs and earn a living and raise a family without government overreach and interference. over the last two and a half years, the republican-led house has done that on a daily basis. however, some in washington haven't gotten the message. i'm proud to continue upporting legislation that stops government abuse like we've seen in the i.r.s., restrain the runaway federal government that doesn't have brakes and empowers the american people with greater opportunity to pull themselves up by their boot straps. the people of eastern and southeastern ohio want a strong economy that will create a more secure future for them. the house republican plan to stop government abuse lays the groundwork for more secure jobs and a more secure future. with new jobs, more freedom and expanded opportunities. with that, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from ohio yields back. for what purpose does the gentlelady from nevada seek recognition? ms. titus: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. ms. titus: i rise to oppose the priorities that are the focus f this republicans' obstruct and repeal agenda. when we adjourn tomorrow, the republican leadership will leave behind a staggering ecord of unfinished business a bills that put politics ahead of the american people's priorities. since january, they have not allowed a vote on a real jobs bill, haven't finished a budget, passed comprehensive immigration reform, restored funding on nutrition programs or fixed the sequester. their aversion to meaningful action is undermining the important economic progress we've made, it's keeping 11 million undocumented immigrants in the shadows and it's disproportionately harming low income women and families. hopefully they'll see the light in the august recess and put aside the obstruct, repeel and repeat agenda and set a new one that answers the public's outcry for action. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from south carolina seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. wilson: obamacare is a train wreck quickly approaching a station near you this unworkable law will detroy hundreds of thousands of jobs, disrupt the doctor-patient relationship and offer, quote a free ticket new york show, end of quote. according to a recent cbs news poll, 54% of americans disapprove of the health care law while only 36% approve. it's clear the american people have lost faith in the president's government health care takeover bill. the federal government, especially the i.r.s., has betrayed the trust of the american people. every day, more groups come forward and reveal unfair targeting by the i.r.s. house republicans are acting to protect every american family from the abuse, targeting and harassing of the i.r.s. this week we'll vote on the keep the i.r.s. off your health care act, legislation that tpwhears i.r.s. from implementing obamacare. i urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to support this bill and help restore the american people's faith in limiting government. in conclusion, god bless our troops and we will never forget september 11 and the global war on terrorism. i'm grate to feel work the sonny and -- sunny and jay phillips family to the capitol. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> i rise to recognize a talented educator in my district, andrew walter. he's a math teacher at stag high school in stockton, california. he's one of five california finalisters in 2013 presidential awards for excellence in mathematics and science teaching. mr. mcnerney: for the past 20 years he's been enriching the lives of the youths of san joaquin county as chair hofe mathematics department as well as serving as the math, engineering, science and achivement -- achievement advisor for preengineering students. a stem education is critical for our students to help them survive in these competitive fields. . walker has led his math, engineering, science team to win several times. it's this type of dedication and commitment that will lead to innovation, the creation of good-paying jobs and keep america as a world lead for the these areas. i urge my colleagues to join me in congratulating walter -- andrew waller, not only for his nomination but also for everything he's done for his students. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from arizona seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman from arizona is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, i rise today to address attorney general holder's misleading congress with deceptive testimony. if i or any other ordinary citizen did what the attorney general did we would be thrown in jail for purgery. in -- perjury. in front of the house judiciary committee he said he knew nothing of the targeting of james rosen. t he sign the subpoena for mr. rosen's records. mr. gosar: does he suffer from sedget schultz syndrome where he sees nothing, knows nothing, hears nothing? how convenient for mr. holder. wear nation of laws but the attorney general has created an atmosphere of lawlessness in america. no one is above the law. he must be held accountable. as supreme court justice bran dice said new york a government of laws the existence of the government will be imperiled if it fails to observe the law scrupulously. if goth becomes a lawbreaker, it breeds contempt for the law and invites every man to become a law unto himself an invites anarchy. i ask you, has the attorney general invited anarchy? i'll continue to make my case here at the people's house and the people's pulpit. i will be back. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentlelady from texas seek recognition? without objection, the gentlelady from texas is recognized for one minute. ms. jackson lee: thank you very much, mr. speaker. this is a picture of a hemless young person, 19,000 of them are in houston, according to 28 school districts, and just hink on the floor of the house before it wednesday thud there was a housing bill that cutting the housing appropriation for homeless and veterans and working americans to $44.1 billion but more importantly under the sequestration amount, offered by the republicans, even the senate in a compromise manner put it at $54 billion. so i rise today to ask is anyone speaking for these young people? such as those who reside in the place called little audrey in my district where i sat down with young people who had lived in a crack house not because they were on crack or because that was a place for them to -- but because that was the place for them to live until they found little audrey. or the young lady who was abused until she fund little audrey or the twins who were alone with no parents until they found little audrey. m going to ask the city to use money they've receive fred this federal government to help build a facility from little audrey and i'm going to insist when communities get federal dollars we should be able to use them creatively to serve people, to serve the homeless, to serve homeless youth. how long will we have to cry out for young people who suffer from mental concerns and others who have no place to live? i hope houston will listen and i hope my friends on the other side of the aisle will have mercy on those who need housing. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from texas seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. poe: mr. speaker, for some of us, growing up was the best of times. simple times. safe times. but life isn't that way anymore for some kids. today, young girls, average age between 12 and 14, are lured into a crooked, despicable business. it's sex trafficking. modern day slavery. girls have been threatened, raped, forced into selling their bodies on the streets by e worst deviants our society. some of these girls are smuggled into the united states by slave traffickers from other countries and some are from our own neighborhoods. sex traffickers should be put into the jailhouse forever. society must get to the root of the problem, the demand. that's why i've introduced the end sex trafficking act, along with representatives maloney, granger and nolan. our bill targets interstate criminals who purchase sexual acts from child victims and ensures they are prosecuted as human traffickers. no longer can they hide. let the long arm of the law punish the child molesting pedophiles who steal the innocence of children. and that's just the way it is. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlelady from hawaii seek recognition? . without objection, the gentlelady from hawaii is recognized for one minute. ms. hanabusa: a word not much known two years ago is now known. to sequester, a verb, and sequester, a noun. today in the armed services committee we heard the republican chair and the democratic ranking member state in almost unison sequestration must end. it is our threat to our great nation's readiness posture, affects jobs, the manufacturing base. d.o.d. alone has 800,000 civilian employees. it is not only defense that's been affected, it is all of the discretionary budget. c.b.o. estimates it will cost 750,000 jobs this year alone. we saw it earlier this year with the f.a.a. we will see how the u.s. forest service is affected by 500 firefighters that are lost, 50 to 70 fire engines and two aircraft. we will also see 70,000 children lose access to head start. what will it take to turn it off? to quote our past ranking member. we all agree it was not meant to be, it's a mistake. mr. speaker, let's turn it off. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from colorado seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman from colorado is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, the president is giving speeches on his plan for economic growth. mr. tipton: it is to regulate more, spend more and tax more. his speeches will not create jobs. the economy does not improve when the administration piles on tens of thousands of pages of new regulation. families don't thrive when the only jobs they can find is part time because of obamacare's onerous mandate, forcing employers to cut back on hours in order to keep their doors open. this administration's oppressive regulations cost small businesses on average $10,585 per employee. to create jobs and jump-start the economy, we must pull back on unnecessary punitive regulations, hold the bureaucracy accountable and shrink the size of government and reward rather than punish success. this week we're voting to be able to stop government overreach, stand up for the american people and give them a fighting chance to be able to succeed. to have access to fair and affordable and effective health care systems. not to have to worry about the federal government increasing burdens on their lives, abusing power and stunting economic growth and putting their jobs at risk. the american people need this response. with that i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentlelady from florida seek recognition? ms. wilson: i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentlelady from florida is recognized for one minute. mr. speaker, tomorrow begins a long district work period. when i arrived the number one question would be, congresswoman wilson, what are they doing in washington to help us with unemployment and the economy? what are they doing about sequestration? i will say, the republicans have not allowed one vote on serious legislation to create jobs or jobs training programs, not one vote to rebuild our bridges and schools, not one bill to hire more teachers and police officers and nothing to stop sequestration. mr. speaker, bring the american jobs bill to the floor. it creates jobs and stops sequestration. the farm bill is still up in the air. judicial confirmations are on hold. immigration reform is still on and mr. snouden is still a fuge -- snowden is still a fugitive from justice. the polls tell us that the problem people -- for the american people is jobs. the jobs bill stops sequestration. jobs, jobs, jobs should be the mantra of this congress. thank you. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from ohio seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman from ohio is recognized for one minute. >> thank you, mr. speaker. the great lakes are truly one of the jewels of north america, they contain 20% of the world's surface water and drinking water for 30 million people. they're also a driver of our economy. studies show that 1.5 million jobs are directly connected to the great lakes, ren jating -- generating $62 billion in wages. that's why i'm asking my colleagues to support the great lakes ecological protection act. this will ensure we have a healthy great lakes while boosting the economy around the great lakes region. this bill already enjoys bipartisan support, and i hope my colleagues will join me in protecting one of the most precious resources in north america. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlelady from california seek recognition? without objection, the gentlelady from california is recognized for one minute. ms. hahn: mr. speaker, as we see obamacare go into effect, we see that it is making affordable health insurance a reality for hardworking families. anks to obamacare, 360,000 small businesses have the right to receive tax credits to help with the cost of providing coverage to their employees. thanks to obamacare, senior citizens have the right to affordable prescription drugs and three preventative benefits. thanks to obamacare, millions of young adults have the right to stay on their parent's health insurance until they're 26. and thanks to obamacare, women have the right to no longer be denied coverage because they are sick or have pre-existing conditions. and thanks to obamacare, women no longer have to pay higher premiums for health insurance just because we are women. we are finally making great progress and fixing an outdated health care system that's been broken for far too long. let's not vote to take away the american people's right. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from alaska seek recognition? without objection, the gentleman from arkansas is recognized for one minute. > mr. speaker, i rise today to honor sergeant carl moore iii from arkansas. sergeant moore, a fellow screaming eagle, is with the 101st aaron borne division. mr. griffin: sergeant moore was wounded while on patrol in afghanistan. a bullet struck him under his arm, puncturing one of his lungs and grazing his spine. sergeant moore is currently at tampa polytrauma rehabilitation center where he's recovering. he's unable to walk but he has feeling in his legs and toes and his prognosis is good. i pray for his speedy recovery so he can get back to enjoying the things he loves. my thoughts go back to his parents and his wife, heather, and their 4-year-old daughter, addison. mr. speaker, i urge my colleagues to join me in thanking sergeant moore for his service and to saluting all those who've served and continue to serve our nation. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman from california is recognized for one minute. >> mr. speaker, i sadly come before the congress to recognize and honor a person that i love very much, lillian kawasaki. lillian kawasaki was a dedicated public servant, a represented community leader, a beloved wife and sister and she was a dear, dear friend of mine. mr. lowenthal: sadly, she passed away and a memorial service will be held this saturday, august 3. lillian was a generous soul. her generosity always was done with grace and enthusiasm. she had love from all who knew her. e possessed an infection smile. her laugh made everyone better. she worked with the port of los angeles and then with the los angeles department of water and power. it brought not only recognition to her throughout california ut also throughout the nation. she was an expert on water issues, and when she passed away was a member of the water replenishment department elected. long beach has lost one of its finest. i and countless people in california already miss lillian. she will not be forgotten. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. for what purpose does the gentleman from maryland seek recognition? >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and to revise and extend my remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the gentleman from maryland is recognized for one minute. mr. harris: mr. speaker, the bad news on obamacare just keeps rolling in. as if it's not bad enough that the i.r.s. will be helping run obamacare, maryland announced last friday that health insurance premiums will go up 25% next year under obamacare. whatever happened to the president's promise that premiums will go down, not up? just another empty promise? maryland's middle-class families already struggling to pay their health insurance premiums will see their policies costs over $1,000 more next year under obamacare. many will just drop their insurance. that will just increase the long lines we already see in our crowded emergency rooms. mr. speaker, obamacare is a disaster. we should repeal it before it does more damage to our hardworking middle-class taxpayers and before it destroys even more jobs. i yield back the time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. for what purpose does the gentlelady from california seek recognition? without objection, the gentlelady from california is recognized for one minute. >> thank you. last week i joined my colleagues in a bipartisan trip to new york city to celebrate america's immigrant heritage. mrs. davis: together we sailed through the statue of liberty and ellis island. we stared down those dark cass dating water falls at the 9/11 memorial and remembered our ancestors at the museum of jewish heritage and the african burial ground. all around us were reminders of how people came to america. by choice or not. sometimes not by choice. but then hoping for a better life. our country has been the better because of it. whether it's the laborers who built our bridges or the scientists and leaders who made their mark in history, we couldn't be where we are today without immigrants. i was reminded of that as i witnessed the naturalization ceremony. 82 people from 27 countries became new americans that day, and you could see their beaming faces. immigration is at our core, the moral fiber that binds us together and makes us stronger. congress now has a responsibility to pass an immigration bill that's worthy of our rich heritage. let's write the next chapter of american history, one that our children and our grandchildren can be proud of. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady's time has expired. the chair lays before the house n enrolled bill. the clerk: h.r. 2611, an act to designate the headquarters building of the coast guard on the campus located at 2701 martin luther king jr. avenue, southeast, in the district of columbia, as the douglas a. munro coast guard headquarters and for other purposes. the speaker pro tempore: for what purpose does the gentleman from oklahoma seek recognition? coal residuals reuse and management mr. speaker, -- mr. cole: mr. speaker, by the direction of the committee on rules, i call up i call up house resolution 322 and ask for its immediate consideration. the speaker pro tempore: the clerk will report the resolution. the clerk: house calendar number 49, house resolution 422, resolved that at anytime after the adoption of this resolution the speaker may, pursuant to clause 2-b of rule 18, declare the house resolved into the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for consideration of the bill 367, to amend chapter 5, , to provide code that major rules of the executive branch shall have no force or effect unless a joint resolution of approval is enacted into law. the first reading of the bill shall be dispensed with. all points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. general debate shall be confined to the bill and shall not exceed one hour equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on the judiciary. after general debate the bill shall be considered for amendment under the five-minute rule. it shall be in order to consider as an original bill for the purpose of amendment under the five-minute rule the amendment in the nature of a substitute recommended by the committee on the judiciary now printed in the bill modified by the amendment printed in part a of the report of the committee on rules accompanying this resolution. that amendment in the nature of a substitute shall be considered as read. all points of order against that amendment in the nature of a substitute are waived. no amendment to that amendment in the nature of a substitute shall be in order except those printed in part b of the report of the committee on rules. each such amendment may be offered only in the order printed in the report, may be offered only by a member designated in the report, shall be considered as read, shall be debatable for the time specified in the report equally divided and controlled by the proponent and an opponent, shall not be subject to amendment, and shall not be subject to a demand for division of the question in the house or in the committee of the whole. all points of order against such amendments are waived. at the conclusion of consideration of the bill for amendment the committee shall rise and report the bill to the house with such amendments as may have been adopted. any member may demand a separate vote in the house on any amendment adopted in the committee of the whole to the bill or to the amendment in the nature of a substitute made in order as original text. the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill and amendments thereto to final passage without intervening motion except one motion to recommit with or ithout instructions. section 2, upon adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider in the house the bill h.r. 2009, to prohibit the secretary of the treasury from enforcing the patient prosection and -- protection and affordable care act and the health care and education reconciliation act of 2010. all points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. the bill shall be considered as read. all points of order against provisions in the bill are waived. the previous question shall be considered as ordered on the bill and on any amendment thereto to final passage without intervening motion except, one, one hour of debate equally divided and controlled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on ways and means, and two, one motion to recommit. section 3. house resolution 292 is laid on the table. section 4, on any legislative day in the period from august 3, 2013, through september 6, 2013, a, the journal of the proceeds of the previous day shall be considered as approved, b, the chair may at any time declare the house adjourned to meet at a date and time within the limits of clause 4, section 5, article 1 of the constitution to be announced by the chair in declaring the adjournment, and c, bills and resolutions introduced in the period addressed by the section shall be numbered, listed in the congressional record an when printed shall bear the date of introduction but may be referred by the speaker at a later time. section 5, the speaker may appoint members to perform the duties of the chair for the duration of the period addressed by section 4 of this resolution as though under clause 8-a of rule 1. section 6, each day during the period addressed by section 4 of this resolution shall not constitute a calendar day for purposes of section 7 of the war powers resolution, 50 united states code 1546. section 7, each day during the period addressed by section 4 of this resolution shall not constitute a legislative day for purposes of clause 7 of rule 13. section 8, upon adoption of this resolution it shall be in order to consider in the house the bill h.r. 2879, to provide limitations on bonuses for federal employees during sequestration, to provide for investigative leave requirements for members of the senior executive service, to establish certain procedures for conducting in-person or telephonic interactions by executive branch employees with individuals and for other purposes. all points of order against consideration of the bill are waived. the bill shall be considered as read. all points of order against provisions in the bill are waived. the previous question shall be considered as recordered on the bill and on any amendment thereto to final passage without intervening motion except, one, one hour of debate equally divided and voled by the chair and ranking minority member of the committee on oversight and government reform and two, one motion to recommit. section 9, upon passage of h.r. 2879, the following bills shall be laid on the table. and h.r. h.r. 25 9, 711. -- h.r. 2579, and h.r. 2711. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for one hour. >> i yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentlelady from new york, ms. slaughter, pend chg i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. cole: during consideration of this resolution, all time is yielded for purposes of debate only. i ask unanimous consent that all members have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. mr. cole: the rules committee melt and reported a rule for nsideration of h.r. 367, the reins act, h.r. 2009, the keep the i.r.s. off your health care t, and h.r. 2079, the stop government act, it allows for debate time of 12 of 23 amendments submitted for the reins act and incorporates a technical correction. it provides for one hour of debate equally divided between the chair and ranking member of the judiciary committee. in addition, the rule incorporates a purely technical amendment to the bill from chairman sessions. additionally the rule provides a closed rule for consideration of h.r. 2009, the keep the i.r.s. off your health care act, and provides for an hour of debate equally divided between the chairman and ranking member of the committee on ways and means. furthermore, the rule provides a closed rule for consideration of h.r. 2879, the stop government abuse act, and provides for one hour of debate equally divided between the chairman and ranking member of the committee on oversight and government reform. finally, mr. speaker, the rule provides floor management tools to be used during the august recess. mr. speaker, america's job creators have struggled against strong head winds to recover. in fact, since president obama took office, 131 new major regulations costing at least $70 billion have been added to america's regulatory system. under current law, congress only has the power to disapprove regulations put forward by the executive branch. h.r. 367 flips that presumption on its head. any major regulation estimated to cost over $100 million would need to be approved by congress and must be given an up or down vote within 70 legislative days. in his state of the union address, president obama said, quote, to reduce barriers to growth and investment when we find rules that put an unnecessary burden on businesses, we will fix them. h.r. 367 does just that. and allows congress decide whether major rules place unnecessary burdens on job creators. the second bill covered by this rule, mr. speaker, would prohibit the treasury department, including the i.r.s., from implementing or enforcing any provision of obamacare. in the last few months, the american people have learned that the i.r.s. has targeted and intimidated americans exercising their first amendment rights. given the recent scandal and massive amount of sensitive information the i.r.s. is required to collect under obamacare is complete -- it's completely unproipt -- inappropriate for the i.r.s. to be given this responsibility. a recent poll showed that 53% of americans want obamacare repealed entirely. mr. speaker, health care decisions should be made by a patient and his or her doctor, not washington bureaucrats. the final bill covered by this rule, h.r. 2879, was extensively debated on the floor yesterday. in fact, it combines three bills, all aimed at limiting government and returning the power back -- that power back to the people. this bill accomplishes three major objectives. first, it caps bonus for federal employees at a maximum 5% of their salary to the end of the fiscal year 2015. with federal officials furloughing employees due to sequestration, the government should not at the same time be handing out millions of dollars in bonuses to other employees. second, this bill allows for senior federal officials under investigation for serious misconduct to be put on unpaid leave. under current law, agencies have little recourse but to put official obs paid leave where they can collect a paycheck for months or even years while the investigation occurs. timely, this bill allows for citizens to record their meetings and telephone exchanges with federal regulatory officials. in my home state of oklahoma, along with 37 over state, this is already the case. however, 12 states require all parts involved in the conversation to consent to recording. this bill would allow individuals and -- in all 50 states to record their conversations when meeting with federal officials acting in their official capacity. mr. speaker, h.r. 367, h.r. 2009, and h.r. 2879 all express the views of my constituents, they're increasingly concerned and opposed to an intrusive and expansive government that seeks to tell them what they can and cannot do. these bills seek to stem the tide of crushing regulation and rein in an overbearing federal bureaucracy. i urge support for the rule and the underlying bills an i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oklahoma reserves. the gentlelady from new york is recognized. ms. slaughter: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank my colleague for yielding me the 30 minutes and yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady is recognized. ms. slaughter: thank you very much. mr. speaker, this is the final week the house will be in session before we begin our recess. i don't like to call it recess, since we work as hard at home, but this is probably the last time we'll get together until we come back in the fall. as the clock runs out on another legislative session we are voting the 40th time, 40 time, repeal or undermine the affordable health care act. by now, we all know how today's debate will end. the majority will pass the bill, the senate will refuse to take it up, and we will have wasted, again, the public's time and their patience. when they adjourn for august recess only to return in september with issues like jobs and immigration reform and sequestration will be left unsolved as they are today. the other night i was watching comedian stephen colbert on his program and he was talking about the number of times we vowed to try to repeal health care. an he had a good idea for the republicans. he said, obviously you're not going to be able to do it if you say you're going to repeal health care system of he suggested that a bill be written that is titled, quote, this is not another repeal of obamacare, we swear it, but just don't look inside it, sign it. if you put that act up, maybe you'd get somewhere with it. some speculated the g.o.p. is desperate to get rid of this law because they know it is working and will work even better as it is fully implemented. and they have firmly planted their feet on the wrong side of history once again. i can't comment on their motivation but it's clear that millions of americans are using this law because of the incredible benefits it provides. i was stunned by the last speaker on the one minute this is morning talking about maryland because we just got the statistics for maryland, the health plans are better than ever, and just last week maryland announced their rates will be among the lowest in the country. not, as he said a 20% increase. nevada announced a young adult will be able to purchase a catastrophic health insurance plan for less than $100 and i said last week when we had the other vote to get rid of health care that new york had just come out with woppederful news that on the exchanges that 17 insurers had applied to provide insurance in the state of new york and it would cause those premiums to fall by more than 50%. and we join 11 other states with the same kind of news, it's happening all over america. for those states that decided not to do an exchange, going to let the government do it, fine. i think they'll do ok there. maybe we'll move closer to single payer which is what we should be doing. now, 62 days from now, those new exchanges will open their doors and they are going to provide millions of americans with secure and affordable health care. for the very first time, insurers are going to be barred from denying coverage because of pre-existing conditions. and barred from facing lifetime and yearly limits on an individual's health care, and they are sending checks back to their customers all over the country because the new law requires them to spend 80% of the premium dollar on health care. and since the far -- since the far less than 80% was spentmark companies are doing rebates and people are getting those checks. i can't really go on much further without talking about what we are doing here today. i think it's somewhat historical, maybe not -- may not be the first time, probably not, but i've not had the pleasure before, i think, of doing a rule which really consists of five bills which very little in common being stuffed into one because the house basically imploded yesterday. but as we said before and i actually, i've done all of the rules on health care repeal and if i had a machine i could just walk out of eat, the room and do the same speech over and over again. i asked dr. mcdermott the other tai, who is a psychiatrist, i said what do you call someone or one group that does the same thing over and over and over again, anticipating a different result? and he gave me the psychiatric definition for that we all know that today's volt is not a single thing except another cynical attempt to score political points. and as we go to our districts this august, the question is, whether or not the majority will double down on their fail aid general da in september and -- failed agenda in september and continue their irresponsible attempts to repeal the health care law. if they do, they will be escalating their brinksmanship to a new level and risking a government shutdown simply because they don't want to compromise. already, as you know, members of the majority are threatening to shut down the government if the affordable care act is not repealed. that does show kind of an act of desperation, doesn't it? it -- a dozen republican senators signed a letter vowing to vote against a continuing resolution we have to have because nobody got the work done that funds the affordable care act and more than 60 house republicans called on the majority's leadership to defund the affordable care act in any continuing resolution that comes before the house. . instead i want the majority to make a change here. my fellow kentuckian, hal rogers, who is the chairman of the appropriations committee, yesterday made it plain to everybody, this is a

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