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the speaker pro tempore: on this vote the yeas are 224. the mays are 183. the previous question is ordered. -- the nays are 183. the previous question is ordered. the house will come to order. e this vote the yeas are 226. the nays are 178. the resolution is adopted. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. the unfinished business -- the unfinished business is the vote on the motion of the gentleman from texas, mr. barton, to suspend the rules and pass h.r. 6190 on which the yeas and nays are ordered. the clerk will report the title of the bill. the clerk: union calendar number 485, h.r. 6190, a bill to direct the administer of the environmental protection agency to allow for the distribution, sell and consumption in the united states of remaining inventories of the over-the-counter c.f.c. epinephrine inhalers. the speaker pro tempore: the question is will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a five-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] the speaker pro tempore: the yeas are 229. the nays are 182. 2/3 not being in the affirmative, the rules are not suspended and the bill is not passed. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house the following personal requests. the clerk: leaves of absence for mr. griffin of arkansas for the week of december 11 and mr. reyes of texas for today and for the balance of the week. the speaker pro tempore: without objection. the requests are granted. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the speaker pro tempore: members and staff, please remove your conversations from the floor. the speaker pro tempore: the house will be in order. the chair will entertain requests for one-minute speeches. for what purpose does the gentleman from massachusetts rise? >> address the house for one minute. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. >> mr. speaker, earlier this year -- mr. frank: i was critical on actions taken by the republican leadership regarding sponsorship of a bill. it's not my intention to rehash that but in the course of my discussion of that which was fairly spirited i accused mr. hensarling of having said something that wasn't accurate. i have had a conversation with him and i believe i have said it unfairly to him. i'm critical of what happened and i don't want to get into it. but i inaccurately impugned the actions to the gentleman, mr. hensarling and i apologize to him of accusing him of something that he did not do. the speaker pro tempore: jabbed -- the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. for what purpose does the gentleman from florida rise? without objection. the gentleman is recognized for one minute. >> like all of us in congress, i believe in the greatness of the american people and our principals and rights that have made america a beacon of hope and freedom. many yearn for basic human liberties. the people of western sa harrah have been trapped in oppressive conditions under the puppet regime. the front has instituted masked kidnappings of people from their homes into western algeria. they have been in prison in camps for 35 years. the front colbrates with the likes of cuba who ration food in the camp and indoctor rin ate children while partnering with al qaeda. they have a plan, which i will submit for the record that addresses these issues with a clear and democratic solution to the sa harrah crisis. this is where america support should lie. mr. speaker, the united states can and must continue to advance fundamental human rights as we in this chamber continue to work together for peace, justice and human dignity in the western sahara. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. are there further requests for one-minute speeches? the house will be in order. members and staff, remove your conversations off the floor. under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the gentleman from california, mr. miller, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader. mr. miller: mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. mr. speaker, i rise today with my colleagues to pay special tribute to several members of the california democratic delegation. it whose service in congress is shortly coming to an end. these six members served this house and their constituents with dedication and deserve our gratitude for the hard work they have done on behalf of california and our country. representative joe baca who was elected in 2002, served for 10 years from the 43rd congressional district. representative howard berman elected in 1982 and served 30 years from the 28th district. representative bob filner sworn in this month as mayor of san diego and served for 20 years. representative laura richardson served for five years from the 37th district. representative pete stark, outgoing dean of our delegation was elected in 1972 and served more than 40 wreers from the 13th district. representative lynn woolsey served for 20 years from the 6th congressional district. much kk said about the distinguished careers of our departing colleagues, but i would like to offer a few remarks of the work i have joined them during their time here in the congress. representative howard berman has served the house for 30 years and i was honored to name him among my closest friends in this body. during his service, he worked on a wide of variety of issues and known as a champion of human rights and standing up for middle class, working class and for the poor in our country. as chair of the foreign affairs committee from 2007 to 2008, mr. berman made great progress on behalf of the less fortunate. he was a leader in securing reauthorization of our global hiv-aids program to help provide access to preventive services for millions and authored legislation removing nelson mandela and other members of the african congress on the terrorism list. finally he was a leader in raising concerns about human rights abuses around the world and key leader in bringing additional disclosure to the trade and conflict minerals that were financed the ongoing violence in the congo. he is a strong friend of israel and passionate about the need to achieve lasting peace and a broader coalition in the house of representatives. . i want to recognize mr. berman's work on behalf of immigration and those who emigrated to this country and his work on behalf of migrant workers and farm workers all across the united states. and for that effort he received the first annual farm worker justice award by the farm worker justice fund in 2000. like mr. berman, our dean, congressman pete stark, has spent his entire distinguished career in congress advocating on behalf of those voices who were often drowned out in washington by the influence of the moneyed interest. over the last 40 years, congressman stark has been one of the foremost advocates on behalf on efforts to ensure that americans were able to access quality, affordable health insurance. i am honored to have been one of the three principaled co- authors in the house of the historic affordable care act which will provide quality insurance for every single american. the key role mr. stark in drafting that law and made sure that the law provided needed relief for working families. this was a crucial accomplishment, yet it was far from mr. stark's only accomplishment in the field of health care. as a former chair and ranking democrat on the ways and means health subcommittee for many years, he was a leader on the health care reform. he was a lead author of the original cobra insurance bill which ensured that workers faced with losing their jobs would not also immediately lose access to the needed health insurance. and those of us who have gone through this recent downturn and recession in this country know from the testimony of our constituents how vital the access to cobra health insurance was to the health security for their families, to the financial security for their families. he also pie neared the efforts to make modern i.t. systems available and required within the health care systems of this country that will help us improve the outcomes of health care and hopefully drive down the cost of health care and provide better care for patients within this system. he i think along with sam gibbons of florida pie neared the idea that there should be medicare for all. and beat on -- pioneered the idea that there should be medicare for all and beat on that drum for a long time. it led to the improvements and passage of the affordable care act. he's also been obviously a campaigner on behalf of fairness in our tax code. and it's unfortunate that he's retiring from the congress because maybe we'll finally after since 1986 that we've addressed this issue, there might be a chance to get something done in the next congress. but he paved the way on so many of those issues. finally in my remarks at this moment, i'd like to highlight the work of an outstanding democrat on the subcommittee on work force protection of the education and labor committee and that is congresswoman lynn woolsey. congresswoman woolsey knows their struggles. four decades ago she was a single working mother supporting three children. she knows about the economic security of families. later as a resource manager she knew things like working families are still fighting for like paid leave, paid sick leave, retirement and health care. serving as chair and ranking member of the work force protection subcommittee, lynn woolsey was instrumental in helping to get the lilly ledbetter fair pay act signed into law and military families dealing with military deployment and injury. lynn woolsey was a partner to ensure coal miners are kept safe and healthy on the job. she went underground in a coal mine with our late colleague donald payne to require firsthand knowledge of how the workplace works and the environment in which those miners go to work every day. in the classroom, lynn woolsey continues to fight for women and working families. she was -- i want to say harsh, but i will say tough advocate. making sure that women were represented in the stem fields and the careers and women and young women had access to the sciences and to technology and to math and engineering. lynn woolsey worked to ensure kids had access at every education -- every education opportunity and a well-rounded curriculum to meet their social and emotional needs. american families have benefited from lynn woolsey's fierced a vow casey. harsh, spirited. that's our advocate, lynn. i will miss here contributions on the education committee for the years to come. she's fought tirelessly to protect the environment. most especially in the sonoma coast of san francisco bay and hopefully the president will follow her lead and designate further protections of our ocean and marine habitat in that area of our precious coast. i am very grateful for the members for the work they have done for america's middle class and the struggles -- those who struggle to join our middle class. the work they have done on behalf of their constituents and on behalf of the citizens of this country. they all came here to achieve accomplishments, to achieve success on behalf of their constituents, on behalf of this country, and they've succeeded. and i want to thank them so very much for their service, for their sacrifice, for the ingenuity, their innovation and i would say with these three for their spirited, tough, harsh, relentless pursuit of what they believed in terms of public policy and on my own behalf, i want to thank -- on behalf of our delegation and tens of millions of constituents that we represent in california, i want to thank representative baca, berman, filner, richardson, stark, woolsey for their service and their dedication. now i'd like to recognize other members of our delegation for the purposes of remarks. and i'd ask unanimous consent that i can revise and extend my remarks. mr. honda. i'll say to the members i think we have five or six or seven people. so however you use your time, be mindful of other members seeking to speak. thank you. mr. honda. mr. honda: thank you, mr. chairman. mr. speaker, it's with heavy heart but with great that i rise today and thank my departing california colleagues whose service will end at the end of 112th congress. pete stark is well-known for speaking his mind and standing up for what he believes in while giving a voice to the concerns of many who often feel as though they have none. he has helped millions of americans keep their health insurance coverage after leaving their jobs. ensure people who visit emergency rooms receive help regardless of their ability to pay and help in the affordable care act. he enacted legislation to increase the number of computers in our schools. he's been a champion on broad environmental issues like battling ozone depletion, carbon emissions and has been a proponent of peace. i am honored to gain work in fremont and hope his legacy. and his son, fish, who wrote and was published as an on ed piece independent -- op-ed piece indicating the true side, the real side of pete stark, his father. howard berman is widely known as a leader on foreign affairs, who will stand out in my mind, however, is his help while chairman of the committee on foreign affairs in moving through the committee in the house -- in house resolution 121. it was a resolution calling upon japan to apologize during the imperial army during world war ii, women forced into sexual slavery. he achieved justice for those who suffered atrocities in the past and his leadership will be missed. i also want to thank him for his leadership on the issue of pat tillman, soldier who was -- he lost his life in a firefight when in fact he was killed through -- and i want to appreciate that. lynn woolsey came to congress with a compelling story about how with the helping hand from her government she was able to raise three children by herself and have a successful career serving the people of marina and sonoma counties. she's been a tireless voice for family-friendly policies, for protecting the coastline of northern california and for bringing our troops home and ending the misguided wars in iraq and afghanistan. lynn was a leader of the congressional progressive caucus and i call her the mom of the caucus. and her passionate voice on progressive issues, she will be missed. her leadership will be missed and it will be a great vacuum for us to fill in the future. bob filner had a years' long odyssey for filipino veterans who fought along u.s. troops in world war ii but were denied benefits through their service. so the war -- the united states congress broke its promise it had made to these veterans and for decades to follow, they struggled to secure fair treatment, similar to that afforded to the men who fought alongside them. as chairman of veterans' affairs committee, bob filner was in the middle of this fight. i wish him well as he moves on to a new phase to his service to the people of san diego. jose baca, or joe baca, has been a friend of mine for a long time. school boards and all other elected offices, but since we served together in the california state assembly to the halls of congress, joe was chairman of the congressional hispanic caucus while i was chairman of the congressional asian pacific congressional caucus and we stood together to fight against harmful english-only and anti-immigrant legislation in amendments. we also share a commitment to protecting the rights of native americans. particularly tribal sovereignty. joe has been a good friend. i will miss him regularly on the house floor. perhaps in a couple of years we may see him again. i will miss laura richardson who i have had the pleasure of working with on anti-bullying issues. and end the fight to make sure that lbt families are recognized in our -- lgbt families are recognized in our family laws. and i move to a slightly larger accommodations and he was a strong voice on behalf of his central valley constituents. we also are bidding farewell to a large number of our california republican colleagues who served for many years. bilbray, mary bono mack, mr. galilee, wally herger, jerry lewis and dan lungren. while we all certainly haven't agreed on many policy i shallies over the yours -- issues over the years, i know they were committed to their constituents. and my california colleagues will be leaving at the end of the 112th congress, i wish them well. mr. miller: might i inquire of the chair the time i have left? the speaker pro tempore: 46 minutes. mr. miller: i want to yield to congresswoman lois capps. mrs. capps: i want to thank george miller for setting aside this hour and he just asked the amount of time and i take that to heart. we could all go at great lengths to all of these dear people who won't be with us in the next congress. and i add my congratulations for their service to republicans and all the democrats, all of us alike. but i will speak now for the six of our democratics colleagues who on behalf of them who will not come back. and i want to start with our dear friend, lynn woolsey, who because of whom i get compared, my progressive constituents often say to me, now, lois, why don't you vote more like lynn wolsy votes? and she -- wooledsy votes? and she was one of the first people i met. her story was compelling. as a woman member of congress, i don't know how it would be to raise kids by herself. she's a great voice and advocate for all mothers, all working families and particularly those who carry extra burdens themselves. she's put her heart and soul into her work in congress, and it shows. as i met you early on when i came here, i knew you were kind and befriended me. i know you served your constituents in the same passionate way. and i thank you for the role model you've provided me. howard berman has provided another kind of role model for me. my husband before me came to congress in part to work on middle eastern issues. and there's a go-to person in this congress that i always relied upon for advice and support in that area, and that's howard berman. he's a congressperson's congressman, in my opinion. and my human rights watch folks have held him in such high esteem. it's been a very great honor to serve almost as a neighbor to him. with his district in the central valley, san fernando valley, and mine on the coast, it's been a real joy to have him as a colleague here, and i will treasure always his role in getting me elected and also keeping me here. . i came to congress from the health care field, so the name i heard often was congressman pete stark. and been here since the 1970's. knows all about health care and i'm pleased, mr. stark, that you have been here through the passage of the affordable care act. that's a crowning jewel for you and all of us. but you have been through many health care ups and downs over the years and been a role model for me being on the ways and means committee and the house committee in energy and commerce. thank you for your service and friendship. it is hard to go through this list. mr. miller, this is a wonderful privilege to say thank you, the countless hours that you could add up for the service to constituents and the tremendous leadership within this body and these members who have given their all and will not be back at the 113th. it's important to say their names and to honor them and give them credit for what they have done. joe baca has been a fixture for the central valley and agriculture, someone who has agriculture number one in my district as well. but there is much to remember joe baca for and his contributions in agriculture and the financial services committee as well. my colleague, former colleague, bob filner, who has already assumed another position within our government, as mayor of san diego. i think of bob filner and i think of veterans' issues and he was a college professor before he came to congress, as my husband was and reached out to each other in that capacity. he has worked hard on veterans' issues. i have 50,000 veterans in my district. so the g.i. bill is often something i can give him credit for and work with my veterans with. and finally laura richardson, it's my daughter's name, but i think of her beautiful singing voice and to my colleague who has given tremendous leadership within the congress as well, but you'll take your beautiful voice with you. i have been able to work with laura on transportation issues as they relate particularly to our ports, because she is known for her work with the port of long beach and i have ports in my district as well. and will be missed on the women's softball team. we are friends here. we are colleagues here. we bring our human qualities. and we bring our leadership skills. and the california delegation makes me proud every day and in the next congress, it will be the memories and the service that has been given to us from these colleagues of ours. and that's why i thank you, mr. miller, for setting aside this hour for us to share our thoughts. >> i saw that andrew and hunter are here. the stark kids. i would like to yield to congresswoman barbara lee. ms. lee: thank you very much. and i want to thank you, congressman miller, for organizing this special order tonight. first to congressman pete stark, who is our departing dean of the california delegation, congressman stark represents a district right next door to my district in the east bay of california, northern california. i just have to say, i have known congressman stark since i was the president of the black student union at mills college in the early 1970's. and i will never forget this. i wrote then my congressman stark a letter on behalf of the students at mills college with a request and he responded so quickly. and replied to that request in a positive way. so on behalf of all those students then, congressman stark, and on behalf of myself today, i just want to say thank you, thank you for demonstrating what exemplary constituent service was all about. i have known congressman stark probably more than most members here because i had the privilege to work with a great statesman and known congressman stark during that period. we always say we have some of the most outspoken and well informed and engaged people in this nation, and congressman stark certainly has been at the forefront of making sure that his district became closer to our federal government and brought the government to the people of his district. and so the east bay thanks you, congressman stark yt and our entire delegation thanks you for so many years of great public service. i was fortunate to be on the house foreign aquares committee with chairman howard berman. and i tell you, howard berman's understanding of global affairs is unmatched. also, i just have to say, he was such a tremendous asset in our global fight against hiv-aids and really got it so early and helped us negotiate and put together the bills that have been so successful in moving us toward an aids-free generation. i have to say with regard to chairman berman, i appreciate his fairness and his objectivity and his commitment to global peace and security. it's an honor to have served with him and i'm going to miss him because i honor him as my friend and i know all of us are going to miss him. but i know we will work with him in the future on so many issues that he cares about. congressman filner is leaving a strong legacy of support for our nation's veterans who have benefit touchdown tremendously from his knowledge and impassioned add vow cast si. congressman filner was a freedom rider and brought the spirit of justice to his work here in congress. congressman filner has done an exemplary job as ranking member and chair of the veterans affairs committee, as we have heard earlier and our entire caucus can be proud of his outstanding leadership. and as the daughter of a veteran, i understand very deeply those obligations that our nation has to those men and women who have served. i had the privilege and honor to help in his campaign and i have been in san diego with bob, the love and the affection that his constituents have for congressman filner is just really unparalleled. i want to congratulate him for his magnificent win. it was a tough campaign, but he did an unbelievable job and that's because people in his district really knew him and he had provided the level of services that allowed him to be elected now as -- we will call him very soon, mayor filner. joe baca, congressman baca, has been a voice for the poor and underserved during his entire career, not only here in congress but in the california legislature. i was privileged to work with joe on many, many issues, and he has been a consistent voice, both in the california legislature and now here in congress, for protecting low-income families from unfair predatory and credit practices. he has used his seat on the house agricultural committee and house financial services committee to help the most vulnerable americans. he has consistently played a role in raising funding levels for food stamps and nutrition programs to feed over 44 million hungry americans. he was a powerful voice against anti-immigrant laws and built bridges on the history of our nation. we will miss his principal leadership and his passion for serving as a voice for the voiceless in congress. and my fellow congressional black caucus member, laura richardson, she has many accomplishments during her brief time. she has worked hard to improve our nation's infrastructure and been advocate for inclusion of minority and women-owned businesses and opened up economic opportunities and strengthened our schools. i know she is going to move forward to make more contributions in public service because she is focused and dedicated elected official. i have to pay tribute to my sister, lynn woolsey and i can't say what a bittersweet season this is after seeing you work so many issues. lynn woolsey has made sure that this body recognizes that peace is patriotic. and she has spoken 444 times on the floor as it relates to the needs to bring our young men and women home. and i look forward to our continuing work. she has been a role model for me. and i have to say finally in conclusion, she understands the importance of the safety net and brought the perspective that comes from relying on public assistance during lean times in her life and gave me the courage to talk about my time on public assistance, which was so difficult for me. to all of our departing members, i'm going to miss you, but we'll see you at home and will continue to fight the good fight. mr. miller: i would like to recognize congresswoman matsui. ms. matsui: i would like to thank the gentleman from california, mr. miller, for yielding time to me and bringing us together. mr. speaker, when the 113th congress starts next year, we will be greeting many new colleagues and we'll have to say good-bye to some of our current colleagues both republican and democrat. we are saying good-bye to six members, representative stark, berman, woolsey, filner, baca and richardson. while in congress, these members served a strong advocates for their constituents for california and for our country. for the many years of service, these six members have ap depth of institutional knowledge that will be missed come next congress. first of all, i want to pay tribute to my good friend, congressman howard berman. howard berman has served for 30 years. i first met howard when he was living in my hometown of sacramento. he was serving in the state legislature at the time. his daughter and my son were in pre-kindergarten together, so we would see each other as we dropped off our kids. little did we know then that we would end up being friends, both serving here in congress. you know, we have all learned a lot from howard. we have learned to depend on him, his counsel and his advice. his knowledge and leadership, particularly on foreign affairs have been invaluable to congress. his absence from this chamber will be strongly felt and he will be sorely missed, but will forever be a friend. congresswoman lynn woolsey, has been a strong advocate for families during her time in congress. she was also one of the founding members of the out of iraq caucus where she acted as a leading proponent of bringing our brave servicemen and women home from war. she fought for those whose voices were often not heard and for add vow cast si and spirit will be missed. as the dean of the democratic california delegation, congressman pete stark has been a leader and mentor to many members from california over the years. he has been a chairman on health care issues for a very long time and his work on the affordable care act improved the law and helped ensure all americans access to affordable and quality health care. we will remember his very important contribution. congressman bob filner, ranking member on the committee of veterans affairs and helped to ensure owe returning veterans have the services they need. we'll miss him here in congress, but i know he'll make a mark as mayor in the city of san diego. joe baca has been a strong advocate for california's agricultural industry while in congress. he has worked on behalf of the workers themselves, making sure they received the civil and legal rights they deserved. congresswoman laura richardson has worked hard to keep america safe as a member of the homeland security committee. her constituents are unwavering and she will be missed next year. california is a large state with many needs and priorities, but our delegation is strong. during the time in office, these members have been esteemed colleagues and it's been an honor to work along side of them. their knowledge, passion and commitment to public service will be greatly missed in these halls. and i wish to thank each of them for their service and wish them the best in the next adventure. i yield back. mr. miller: i recognize congresswoman eshoo. ms. eshoo: i want to thank -- did you want to know how much time you had left first? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman has 29 minutes. mr. miller: we're fine. thank you. you're fine. ms. eshoo: thank you. i want to thank the gentleman from california, my dear friend, mr. miller, for organizing this special order tonight. so that we can take some time, which is the most precious thing really that god gives us is time. and pay tribute to our colleagues who have spent their time being giants in terms of representation and fighting on behalf of their constituents, bringing honor to the house of representatives and to our country. some of the best exports of the bay area and of our state of california. i want to start with the dean of our delegation, congressman pete stark. we salute you, pete. for all that you have given and done. it's an extraordinary record for 40 years in the house of representatives. your name has been synonymous with health care, consistently for all of that period of time. for fighting for a place in that health care system, for people that are unknown to so many in our society and rejected. you made room for them in the emergency room. and wrote a law that no one would be mistreated. in fact they have to be treated before they were asked whether they had health insurance or not. your record is replete with great and good things. on behalf of your constituents, on behalf of those that so much of society has overlooked. and i know that those blessings will come back to you in a very rich and meaningful way as you depart this place. we will miss you. and i thank you for your personal kindnesses, for all the wonderful things that you have done. and the bay area delegation will miss you enormously. next i want to pay tribute to howard berman. to congressman howard berman. this is really hard to do. congressman berman's name is synonymous with the following, with farm workers and their rights. with human rights around the world. anyone that has met and worked with him respects him. it matters not what side of the aisle they have ever come from or what country they come from or what agency they have worked in. howard berman is -- has been the indispensable member in this chamber. when he took over the leadership of the foreign relations committee we saw a new and inspired leadership there, demanding a recognition of the armenian genocide. and he served as the original co-sponsor of that legislation. his record is replete with distinction. replete with distinction. and, howard, in our delegation i don't think there's anyone -- we will all miss you in a very, very deep and special way. this house will miss you because you brought honor to it in everything that you have done. so it is bittersweet. no, it's just bitter. there isn't any sweetness to it. but i know that when i speak of you and really can't bring enough words to one of the most distinguished records over 30 years that any member of congress could ever put together , that the american people thank you, freedomlovers and human rights advocates around the world appreciate and bless your name and i know that together with janice, with lindsay, you haven't seen the last of us. we're going to keep coming after you. and to lynn woolsey, my classmate, we came here, we couldn't even find our way to the credit union. we were so terrified. but together we came and lynn has brought an exceptional voice to families and to women. so often women heading up those families. and she spoke through the prism of her own experience, which is the most powerful story that anyone can ever tell. no one could ever say to lynn woolsey, you don't know what you're talking about. because they knew that she lived it, that she had experienced it and she came here to change so many women's lives, the lives of families, in terms of education for women and girls, for stronger family benefits. i could go on and on. and she brought great voice and vision to the unfortunate policy , the march to folly, when we invaded iraq. she came to this floor over 100 times to speak against that invasion and we are all -- we are all in her debt for her conscience, for her integrity, for her wonderful voice, for her friendship and for the -- her love of the environment of the coast of california. which if there is ever the magical touch of almighty god, you see it there. and she has called on the president and the congress to make sure the protections will be there for -- in perpetuity. we will remember you in per pute, lynn, and i -- perpetuity, lynn, and i ask that every bless you brought to your -- blessing you brought to your constituents in this house will come back to you. to our republican colleagues, jerry lewis, elton gallegly, wally herger, mary boneow mack, dan lungren and david dreier, we thank you. i thank you for your service to the people of this country in this, the house of the people, the magnificent house of representatives. thank you. mr. miller: i'd like now to recognize the leader, the democratic leader, congresswoman nancy pelosi. ms. pelosi: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank you for yielding, mr. miller. i know that we have a time limitation so i will begin by associating myself with the remarks of congresswoman eshoo who speak so -- spoke so beautifully and knowledgeably about our colleagues who are leaving from -- who are from california, who are leaving. i rise today to thank my colleagues who are friends and our partners from the great state of california. the members we honor in this special order, i'm going to just do this because it's way down low. demonstrate the extraordinary divert of our great -- diversity of our great state. they hail from the greater los angeles area to san diego. they bring california's wide range of interests and aspirations to the floor of the house every day. working side by side with the entire california delegation, their service, our service has been -- has strengthened the golden state, the commitment of our departing members has strengthened the congress, their achievements have advanced the character of our country. each of these members has brought a unique voice to the table, yet each shares the same core values, a devotion to public service, a dedication to opportunity, a belief in a promise of america. congresswoman woolsey spent her career fighting to improve the education of our children, the economic security of their families and the protection of our workers, as well as that coastline. with her departure i won't -- departure, i won't say retirement, because she's not a retiring person, the bay area loses a powerful advocate in congress and the nation loses a tireless progressive leader. it was i think mr. miller who said 400 times that lynn woolsey came to the floor to speak against the war in -- our involvement in the war in iraq. thank you, congresswoman woolsey. so it's about the patriotism of this congress and of the participation as patriots of our colleagues from california. whether it's the education of our children, whether it is the health of our people as demonstrated by congressman pete stark. we all owe you, pete stark, a great debt of gratitude. he has been a fixture in the fight to build and strengthen the pillars of health and economic security for the american people from his seat on the ways and means committee to the house floor, he always remained a fierce fighter for medicare and for a passionate advocate for the affordable care act, because he believed that health care is a right for all americans, not a privilege just for the few. his legacy will live long and have stronger support for the well-being of our seniors, our families and middle class. i hope it is a source of pride. i know it is to your family. that so many of your colleagues respect you so much. and honor your leadership and service here. as has been mentioned, congressman filner left us, he's already the mayor of san diego. he was a freedom fighter who fought for civil rights and equality. he was a representative of san diego who never waivered in support of our veterans and he served as the chair of that committee. we wish him well as mayor of san diego. congresswoman richardson has dedicated her time in congress to rebuilding infrastructure, advancing the dream of high speed rail, securing our borders and protecting our environment. we wish her well as she goes forward. congressman berman, we go from b to w. berman to woolsey. and every wonderful thing in between. has spent a -- congressman berman's imprint can be found on legislation across the broad spectrum of issues before the house. many of us knew him long before he came to congress, knew of his work, working with farm workers, working labor law to protect the rights of workers. and two particular areas, his expertise is simply unsurpassed. he's a true expert on international relations, a past chairman of the foreign affairs committee, ranking member now, a champion of aid to israel, a fight against hiv-aids, and the toughest iran sanctions in the history of our country. he is a senior member of the judiciary committee who it's safe to say understands intellectual property, understands their importance, even mentioned in our constitution, and he understands the challenges and the opportunities they present. and every venue and every arena he has been a proud advocate for los angeles and california. a cherished leader for the entire house. joe baca is a lifelong public servant, a paratrooper in the u.s. army, look at this, the 101st airborne and the 82nd airborne divisions. he served california state legislature. he made his mark standing firm against harmful and an ty immigrant measures and leading -- anti-immigrant measures and leading on food stamps. it's fraught with meaning. a lot of work and leadership he put into it in the farm bill. joe baca came from humble beginnings, yet his accomplishments are truly significant. the list goes on and on of our colleagues that congresswoman eshoo mentioned. all of these members, public service has been a calling, a cause and a core facet of their character. california has been proud to have them as our representatives in congress. for those of us who served with them, it's an honor for each of us to call you colleagues. for some of us, a very, very special honor to be considered your friend. we all wish you -- we each wish of you much success in the years ahead. we look forward to coming -- continuing our work together on behalf of our great golden state of california. your service in congress added to the luster of our golden state. thank you and congratulations. mr. miller: i thank the leader. if i might inquire of the time available. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman has 15 minutes remaining. mr. miller: next i'd like to recognize congressman sam far -- farr. mr. farr: thank you very much, mr. speaker. and thank you, george miller, for setting aside this time. you've heard from a lot of my colleagues. i think what is interesting about this moment in history is this is probably the largest retirement ever of any delegation at any one time. california is losing 25% of its incumbent delegation. seven republicans and seven democratless. that's 14 people that have been here and of the seven democrats, they were here for historical moments of electing nancy pelosi from california, the first woman speaker of the house of representatives, and here to pass the first in history comprehensive health care bill. led by californians, i might add, and led by the dean of our delegation, pete stark. pete stark is one of the oldest, longest serving members of congress, been here 40 years. i think there's only two, three people that have served here longer and he's watched this delegation come and go since 1973. he's here tonight with his beautiful family and it's a wonderful, interesting -- pete, of all the people coming into congress, is the only one that came just right from the private sector. most of us got elected to local and state governments. but pete came right here right out of, you know, the background at m.i.t., in engineering, and then a degree from berkley in business administration in 1963. he founded the security national bank of walnut creek which became during the war years known as the progressive bank and the bank that was going to loan to people that weren't otherwise getting loans. and he became a very popular leader in his community, built the bank into a $1 billion financial institution. having a background in the air force and other civic activities, he ran for congress and got elected and has been here, as i said, for 40 years and he's here tonight with his children. he also has four daughters and three sons and eight grandchildren and married to deborah rod rick, also of california. . we are going to miss pete. followed also by howard berman from southern california, background at ucla and law degree from ucla. i was a staff member when he was a california legislator. he came with a background in vista and got elected to the house and has been the leading ranking democrat, probably the most trusted person in congress for foreign affairs. and with his background in labor issues for farmworkers in california and advances they made under federal law. but also as the speaker pointed out, as the leader pointed, one of the few persons that understand patent law, copyright, trademark, all those things important to the entertainment industry and the manufacturing, electronics industry and information technology industry. he has been a senior member. so we're going to miss him deeply, deeply. i feel like a son of howard berman. he ran for the state assembly. i'm going to miss him. lynn woolsey's 10 terms, senior to me. i got elected six months after lynn got sworn in. i remember how proud i was of her background in local government and roles she played in sonoma and marin county. and she has spoken 440 times speaking for peace. going to be leaving this body known as the lady of peace and will be here in history forever and ever. and i remember bill clinton recognizing the backgrounds of people and lynn woolsey was the first woman elected to congress who as a single mom had to be on welfare and worked her way out of that and leading role to show that there are opportunities for you -- for all people in this great country. but the lady of peace is the most important of all. bob filner, background in local government. went back to local government after being involved in school districts and now the mayor of san diego and came here as a freedom fighter in the civil rights movement and led the veterans committee here. joe baca will be known as the captain of our baseball team and how he did so well in that, but had a proud background as the speaker said, in the air force and paratrooper and the list goes on and on. laura richardson is leaving us. and before this, early resignation of dennis cardoza. seven democrats. going to miss them greatly and thank you for allowing me to speak on behalf of their great service to the federal government. mr. miller: thank you, mr. farr. i want to also as congresswoman eshoo and congressman farr acknowledged, there are others from the other side of the aisle who will be leaving after this session of congress. brian bilbray, marry bono mack, david dreier, wally herger, jerry lewis and dan lungren. we have had accomplishments together. jerry lewis and i had the longest floor debate over the creation of desert national parks, mohave desert national parks. when we were done, he was opposed and i was for it, but he made sure the public had access to it and visitor centers. members of congress do -- this isn't just a working relationship. over time, you get to one another's families and know their children's successes and desires and trouble that befalls american families. people don't think of that when they think of the congress and you build relationships and friendships and depend on one another's expertise to guide us through all of the issues that we will confront in a congressional year. congressman stark and myself, we enentered public policy -- public life together by running against one another in 1969. man against machine. i know who it was, this very popular banker and law school dropout. other than that, doing well. but it's a long-standing friendship and it's about family and our ability to talk with one another. and i would like to yield to congressman stark for any remarks he would like to have. mr. stark: thank you, one of the previous speakers mentioned -- you forgot to mention this that i probably had one of the best five-minute speeches of any new member of congress and if i could learn a deliberate lesson in 20 minutes, i would have a great career here. george is right, we ran against each other and when you grow up in the bay area and you have people like barbara lee who was the lone vote in one of the most unpopular wars, you learn what courage is and people who fight for children, for minorities, for all of the people in our area who need help, i'm proud to have worked with them. they have said that i'm the oldest member of congress. that's absolutely wrong. i'm the 430th youngest member of congress. and i just want to make sure you get that straight in the record. thank you, george. i'm honored and i'm particularly honored to be part of this great bay area delegation. and 10 districts surrounding the bay area, we have the finest legislative group in the united states. thank you very much. and i yield back. mr. miller: thank you very much. as we all know in this life, members leave the congress, don't leave public life and i expect we will be hearing from them as they leave the congress in their future endeavors. mr. bilbray wants to clean up the sea and dan lungren would like to take down -- and i know wally herger is concerned about the watershed of the parks of our state. their advocacy goes on and that is true on both sides of the aisle. ms. woolsey, if you would like to say anything. ms. woolsey: thank you, george, for doing this. thank you for honoring us that have been here and are now leaving. i arrived feeling very green and feeling very good 20 years ago. i had no idea how little i knew about how to get something done in the congress. i know i burned in my belly and knew what issues were important to me and they have stayed important to me for the last 20 years, but i had the advantage of working with some very wonderful senior members who generously helped me along and i had the privilege of having very talented staff who built the stage that i could dance on. you can't do that unless it's team work. and i thank you, everybody that's been part of these last 20 years. it's been quite a ride. and i'm glad i did it. thank you very much, george. mr. miller: mr. speaker, that brings to a conclusion our delegation's honor of those members leaving. this is not news to members of the house that on a bipartisan basis, this is a very, very spirited delegation on both sides of the aisle. and a lot of seniority is leaving the congress with this delegation, a lot of expertise, but i'm very proud to have served with all of them. and for their contributions and sacrifices they made in public office on behalf of public policy that they strongly believe in and became advocates for. with that, i yield back. i recognize mr. berman who is here and thank again him for his service and yield back the balance of his time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the gentlewoman from tennessee, mrs. blackburn, is recognized for 60 minutes as the majority -- designee of the majority leader. mrs. blackburn: i thank you, mr. speaker. and i appreciate the designation of the time and appreciate the opportunity to come to the floor tonight and discuss the issues, the very serious issues that are in front of us. now, this is something that we republicans have talked about for quite a period of time. that we had to get the nation's fiscal house in order. the reason we had to do this was because we had a spending issue that was in front of us. many of us felt like the running deficits of several hundred billion dollars a year was not acceptable, and we have watched what has transpired through the years as business continued to grow. -- deficits continued to grow. and the obama administration has run annual deficits of well over $1 trillion. now i'm constantly hearing from people, how did this seem to happen so quickly? it has been decades in the making. and indeed, many of us have come to the floor regularly and we have talked about it and we have offered bills in a would address this. great example of this, every year i have offered bills that call for 1%, 2% and 5% spending reductions. we have the appropriations process where members have come to the floor and have offered amendment after amendment that would reduce what we are spending. we on this side of the aisle also believe that you have to have a budget. now, the president had a proposed budget and nobody wanted to vote for that. so we put it on the floor and i think it got one or two votes from the democrats. the country has not had a budget in over 1,300 days and there is a reason for this and that is because the budget we have passed out of this house has gone to the senate each and every year and it sits on harry reid's desk. and he does not take it up. and we have passed this budget. and i commend congressman ryan, who leads our budget committee. we think we have to bring out-of-control spending under control. you have to restore economic freedom and ensure a level playing field for everybody. by putting an end to special interest favoritism and corporate welfare. we feel like that this administration's policies are driving up the gasoline at the pump and we need to be promoting an all of the above strategy on american energy production to help lower costs to create jobs to reduce dependence on foreign oil, to strengthen our health care and our retirement security by taking power away, away from government bureaucrats and empowering patients and letting patients and doctors make the decisions that are important to them. now, as i said a moment earlier, so many times people have said, how in the world did we get here? as i said decades, decades in the making and then we went through the budget control exercise the year before last. in august, we had a select committee that was put in place. so we ended up with the sequesters and many of my constituents and i'm sure many other members are saying this, too, tell me what the sequester is all about. this is what it is. it's going to take place on january 2 of next year, 2013, and the defense budget is going to see the brunt of these spending reductions. most everything is 2% across the board. spending, additional cuts, $55 billion per year that is going to give them a total of $492 billion in cuts and this is going to leave our military with the smallest ground force since 1940, the smallest naval fleet since 1915, and the smallest task ta call fighting force in -- tactical fighting force in the history of the air force. medicare could see $16.4 billion in annual cuts leading to the elimination of 496,000 jobs in 2013. 62,000 physicians are going to be adversely impacted. and we know the sequester cuts are not -- are not fair to everybody. . we've talked about getting the fiscal house in order and cutting spending and fighting the growth in the debt. we've also passed some bills this year and i would like to remind the members of the body, mr. speaker, of these pieces of legislation that this house of representatives has already passed. and they're sitting on the desk over in the senate. now, we have on august 2 of this year, by a vote of 232-189, we passed the pathway to job creation through a simpler, fairer tax code act of 2012. that was h.r. 6169. it would provide an expedited pathway to pro-growth tax reform in 2013. pro-growth. and to deal with the spending issues, to deal with the deficit, to deal with the debt, yes, you have to cut spending. you have to reform your tax code and you have to have a pro-growth agenda. that legislation, as i said, was passed on august 2. on september 19 of this year, we passed the national security and jobs protection act. that would deal with the sequester that i spoke about a few minutes ago. that passed with 223 votes. we also had, on may 10, the sequester reconciliation act of 2012, h.r. 5652, passed with 218 votes, and then the job protection and recession prevention act passed on august 1, and that was h.r. 8. it passed with 256 votes. and h.r. 8 is the one-year extension of all the tax rates. you know, we keep hearing about the president wants to extend the tax cut for those making $250,000 a year and less. now, what that would do is catch a lot of our small businesses, about 20% of our small businesses have already said that this would adversely impact them to the point that they would be cutting jobs. just -- not growing, but actually cutting jobs. so, i would point out 256 members of this chamber on a bipartisan basis voted to extend the tax cuts for everybody. now, when people say, well, why can't the house and the senate get together? mr. speaker, our bill, as i've just mentioned, these bills are sitting on the senate leader's desk. dealing with the sequester, dealing with taxes, dealing with the reform issues that we have in front of us. these four bills are sitting there waiting for action. the house has done its job. we've agreed, let's not raise taxes on anybody. that's only one part of this issue. and certainly the way the president is wanting to approach tax reform, his proposal would raise enough revenue to run the federal government for about eight more days. it's going to -- he's going to raise taxes on the top 2% basically to pay for 2% of the next year's spending. this is not sustainable. we do not have a revenue problem in this town. we have a spending problem. we have a crushing burden of debt. and i've brought some posters that i would like to show. if will you bring that up here to me, i'm going to use them. right up here. this first poster that i want to call your attention to points out exactly what we have in this crushing burden of debt. you will see that in world war ii it lays out our country's long history with this debt. and shows where this burden has been passed. as i said, decades in the making. take a look at this. in 1940 the percentage of our gross federal debt was 52.4%. that's where we were. by the end of world war ii, the debt had skyrocketed. it was up to 117.5% of our g.d.p., in 1945, and then it peaked in 1946 at 121.7% of our g.d.p. now, that was through the war. but you know what? we did what americans generally do. when you got a problem, you get in behind it and you get it solved. and so we doubled down on getting the spending under control. and you can see what happened and then our federal debt pretty much stabilized in the mid 30% range. and during the reagan administration in 1981 the gross federal debt was 32.5% of g.d.p. well, those old spending habits kind of die hard around this place. you know, federal government as a bureaucracy never gets enough of the taxpayers' money. so when the president took office, our gross federal debt was $8 -- 84.2% of the g.d.p. now, this takes us back to swearing in day in 2009. and that's the figure that neither party could celebrate. and both parties share the responsibility for that. this federal government spends too much money and has for decades. today, according to o.m.b., our projected gross federal deficit -- debt is 105.3% of our g.d.p. and these are just simple facts. you can see what is going to happen if you look at where we are headed with this. now is where over 100%, you look at how quickly we're going to get to 200% and then 300% and 400%. this points out how unfair this debt is to our children and grandchildren. indeed, mr. speaker, i think this, the debt that we have in this country, is the ultimate cap and trade. what is happening? we are capping our children's futures and we're trading it to the countries that own this debt. now, there are some countries -- let me point out who owns this debt. i've got another chart that i want to show you on this specific issue. because a lot of people will ask this and of course last year during the debates on the debt we had so many discussions about this. a couple of my colleagues and i went down and we asked who owned our publicly traded debt? we wanted to know who was buying this american debt. and of course we'd been frustrated with the fed monetizing some of this debt. and running the printing presses. we know that devalues it. we're frustrated that we are running about $4 billion worth of debt a day and that is adding to the annual deficit which accrues to the nation's debt. that frustrates us. so what we've done periodically in my office, mr. speaker, is to go back in and check with treasury and see who owns our debt. well, as of right now china owns $1.15 trillion of our debt. then, number two on the list, is japan with $1.13 trillion of our debt. now, this is interesting. out of this debt number three on the list is opec. opec is an entity. that's the countries of ecuador and venezuela and india and bahrain and iran and iraq and kuwait and amman and qatar and saudi arabia and the u.a.e., algeria, ga been a, -- gabon, nigeria. they're now number three on the list and they own $267 billion of our debt. brazil comes in at number four, $250.5 billion. and then number five on the list, new to the list, the top five list, the caribbean banking centers. now own $240.4 billion of u.s. debt. by the way, caribbean banking centers are the bahamas, bermuda, cayman islands, netherlands and panama. this is who owns us. this is who owns our debt. and this is why on this side of the aisle, what we continue to say is the spending has to be dealt with. we have seen -- we've heard from everybody. we are hearing from economists all around the globe. and they repeatedly say what we are saying, what we've been saying for years as week of come to this floor. is that we have a spending problem. the spending has to be dealt with. we are drowning under a mountain of debt. you cannot continue to borrow nearly 50% of what you are spending and we think that it is problematic, if will you, mr. speaker. and it is disconcerting that the president doesn't want to talk about the spending. but is instead offering to raise enough taxes to fund additional spending for 2% of the year by raising taxes on the top 2%. i guess he's not worried about the other 98% of the year. this is how we've got together this under control -- got to get this under control, by reducing this spending. i'm so pleased to be joined by my colleagues who share the passion for freedom and for economic freedom and understand that economic freedom and political freedom are linked. and that this is a task that we are passionate about, we are given to solving this problem. so that we remain, we remain a free nation. at this time i want to recognize the gentleman from west virginia, mr. mckinley, for his remarks and i yield to him the time that he may consume. mr. mckinley: thank you, congresswoman. mr. speaker. i rise today in a belief that america can handle the truth. abraham lincoln said, i'm a firm believer in the people. if given the truth they can be depended upon to meet any national crisis. the great point is to bring them the real facts. to that end, speaker boehner has been candid about the fiscal challenges facing our nation and has put forth a balanced plan. however, as the president continues to promote his own plan, he seems to be deliberately not sharing key details with the public. first, the plan will hurt nearly a million small businesses by treating them the same as the wealthy americans. and secondly, the plan recognizes the central driver of our deficit. government spending. it ignores that. on the first matter, why should we lump the owner of a hardware store together with wall street executives and tax them at the same rate? when the president talks about the rich paying their fair share , he fails to mention that he also raises the same rate of taxes on small businesses. earlier this week, the president told factory workers that his plan to, quote, ask the wealthiest americans to pay a slightly higher tax rate, closed quote, previously he said millionaires and billionaires can afford to pay a little bit more. but not once did the president publicly acknowledge his plan will raise taxes on owners of small family businesses. i'd like to give you an example of a small business owner who would fill out a tax form here at -- here, a 1040. this form is for a single woman. marleyed -- mary workman, who is in software development. she makes $50,000 in wages. the company makes $150,000. she picks up some dividends and capital gains so she has a total family income of $210,000. under the president's proposal, mary would be hit with the same tax rate equal to those of millionaires, at $50,000 in wages. where's the fairness in that, mr. president? it's one thing to ask bill gates, warren buffett or donald trump to pay more in taxes but it's something else to penalize the small businesses of main street, like the software developer that i'm exampling. but this is not an isolated case. according to the joint committee on taxation, 940,000 small businesses will face higher taxes under this president's plan. these are not the wealthiest americans, but they're small family-owned businesses, they're located in every town across america. and according to the report by ernston young this summer, 710,000 jobs will be lost by these companies if they're taxed at the same rate as corporate america. the president's proposal curiously would raise taxes on small businesses to as high as 39%. but for larger, mature corporations, the president is seeking to lower their tax rate to 25%. although reforming and lowering the corporate tax rate is a worthy goal, neither congress nor the president should give tax advantages to large corporations at the expense of family-owned small businesses. generally, mr. speaker, i'm opposed to raising taxes. however, if in the spirit of compromise congress is forced to adopt new revenues in order to achieve reductions, then congress should insist that personal wages should be separated from small business income and taxed differently. this could be done using information already filed on her 1040. just like they do with capital gains, dividends and interest payments. now on to the second matter. the spending side of the equation. surely the president understands that raising taxes on small businesses and wall street executives won't sufficiently cover the deficit. despite this reality, he consistently confuses the public by ignoring the role that reducing government spending would and should play in deficit reduction. according to the office of management and budget, this administration's plan to raise the top rates generates an average of $43 billion a year. yet we're faced with a deficit of $1.1 trillion. his new revenue, as you pointed out, madam congresswoman, that it's only enough to fund the government for eight days. during the campaign the president proposed that there should be $2.50 in new spending reductions for every $1 in new revenue. but now that the campaign is over his latest plan calls for just the opposite. an unacceptable ratio of $4 in new revenue and only $1 in spending cuts. speaker boehner is right. america has a spending problem, not a taxing problem. while the president has consistently told the american public that he's merely asking the wealthy to pay just a bit more taxes, when was the last time the president had also reminded the american public that we borrow 46 cents out of every $1 we spend? . congress is chasing the wrong rabbit. raising taxes on small businesses is no worse than cutting social worthy programs. federal reserve chairman ben bernanke admitted that the spending levels of this administration are unsustainable, just as president clinton declared years ago, the era of big government is over. this congress needs to man up and declare the era of taxing, spending and borrowing is over as well. now is the time for the president to provide leadership and level with the american people and set aside the campaign rhetoric of class warfare division and envy. small businesses cannot and should not be painted with the same broad brush as millionaires, billionaires and wall street executives. we must protect our small businesses and stop promoting the treatment of their income the same as the wealthy. at the same time, this administration needs to admit that raising taxes on small businesses will not help small businesses. we must prioritize our fiscal negotiations by putting spending reductions before addressing new receive news. mr. speaker -- revenues. mr. speaker, i came to washington to get something done. speaker boehner shows he understands the gravity of the situation and wants to find a solution. i stand solidly behind him. protecting small businesses and addressing our spending problems are too important for the economy to ignore. the situation demands that we deal in reality. once again, mr. speaker, america can handle the truth if given all the facts. i yield back my time. mrs. blackburn: i thank the gentleman for yielding back and i thank mr. mckinley for his well thought-out presentation and putting this 1040 form up here by the i.r.s. and we are coming up on the 100th anniversary of the federal income tax which was to be a 1% income tax on the top 1%. now the 100th anniversary is february 25, 2013. mr. speaker, i think this is a grand time to say let's totally overhaul this tax code here in the united states and let's make certain it is fair. the gentleman talked about the small businesses that he interfaces with. a convenience store operator, a female who runs a seven-person shop, a medical device creator, i have met with all of them in the last couple of days. they can't afford to stay in business, because guess what? they won't be able to make a profit. by the time they pay escalated tax rates and are treated like there is some wall street business, also the $63 per health insurance fee that goes on this next year, driving their health care costs up, the $3 medical device fee that is going to be applied to our mobile medical applications, you know, they're taxing everything they can find to tax. 21 new taxes in obamacare. this is why we are so passionate about solving the spending issue. and i want to welcome to the floor the the gentlewoman from wyoming who has been a stalwart in making certain we cut what we are spending. cut, make some cuts, so we are wise stewards of the taxpayer money. mrs. lummis: i want to compliment the gentlelady from tennessee for organizing this group to talk about this essential issue that is coming before the people of this country as described to be a fiscal cliff. quite frankly, we need to look back at alice in wonderland to see from where we have come. and in the case of alice in wonderland, there is a line that says, if you don't know where you're going, any road will get you there. and certainly in the case of congress, the republicans have laid out a road, it's a road back -- road map for america's future. it is designed by our house budget committee, chaired by congressman paul ryan from wisconsin. and it lays out a plan for spending. it lays out a plan to sustain the viability and vitality of social security and medicare and medicaid into the future, to make sure that seniors now can enjoy the benefits that they've earned through social security, medicare and medicaid. and that the young people who are paying for it now will have those benefits available to them when they retire or when they need them. that is our road map to america's future. that is our budget. it passed this house unanimously through members of congress who are of the republican persuasion. by contrast, the democrats have not tendered or put forward a budget for over 1,300 days. now tim tebow was a quarterback at the university of florida 1,300 days ago before his career at the denver broncos before his career in new york. so many things have happened since those 1,300 days in america. how could one important political party in this country not put forward a budget, a road map to where we want to go with our spending and to retire our debt? some things in our budget, the paul ryan/republican budget put forward is a pathway to eliminate our debt and our deficit without raising taxes and while preserving america's social safety net. and yet, the other side of the aisle put forth nothing in response. and the answer is because, i believe, they don't know where we're going. so any road will get them there. the president's budget was presented by timothy geithner to the house budget committee. we asked him, when does it balance? at what point out in the future does it eliminate our debt and deficit? and the answer was never. never. our country needs direction right now. and the people who are here tonight want to make sure that the people of america know where we're going. and yet, our president put forward a budget that never balances. and his answer now on this road to however and wherever we're going is, i want to tax people who can provide enough income for our nation to fund it for eight days. that's not a budget. that's not an answer. that's not an american value. that is not where we should be going. our own government accountability office has put together three volumes of reports that contain in them ways that we can consolidate spending, create efficiencies in government, save money and make our government smaller, morrow bus, serve the people -- more robust and serve the people and save $900 billion a year. now that is three-fourths of the way to solving our entire deficit and yet, why aren't we grabbing that and running with it? why are we talking about raising taxes on the american people? on our small businesses? i come from a state where there are no big cities, madam chairman. i come from a state where the largest town has less than 60,000 people. i come from a state where there are no big four too big to fail banks, a place where you go to your local main street banker, if you want to borrow money and present a plan to pay it back, a secured loan that comes to you and that you do pay back from people who know you, that know your reputation and your ability to repay. and yet through laws like dodd-frank and this mysterious creation called bazzle 3, which will put global banks and my little banks on main streets in wyoming on the same capital plan . that was never intended. that is so irrational. let's work together, democrats and republicans, to help our country rationalize and put things back on the right track. and focus on our spending problems. use the nonpartisan congressional budget office reports to eliminate even half of the items that were -- that we're overspending. it would be a stunning victory for the american people. and we know how to get there. mr. speaker, and madam chairman, you are leaders in this caucus, this conference, this country. we in this house know how to solve these problems. what we lack is gumption, what we lack is a relationship with the president of the united states to sit down and talk to him about these issues. and one more thing, madam chairman. i realize we have very important remarks to be made from others tonight, but i want to tell you a story. there is a group here in the house that gets together once a week and one day we had bob sceiffert of cbs news, a long time respected journalist. and i had the chance to ask him, when you look at the crises in negotiations that are occurring now between members of congress and the president, why are we having so much trouble communicating? who have you witnessed in your lengthy career that did it better? who would you hold up as an example? well, bob, first started covering lyndon johnson in texas many years ago, and he told a story about l.b.j. would have handled this. he mentioned that l.b.j. would religiously watch the sunday morning talk shows. he would watch "meet the press." and he would watch the shows that were on the networks because that's all we had back then was networks. and he would watch the speaker of the house on those programs. and if the speaker would give an avenue for compromise, he had him on the telephone before the speaker of the house left the studio, and he'd say, mr. speaker, why don't you come over to the white house tonight? lady bird and i will put on some fried chicken and sit around the kitchen and talk this over i see an avenue to agree on 10% or 20% on where we need to go to solve these nation's problems. he would connect on a personal level and on a level that found that crack in the arm our of failure to communicate and that's how he solved the problems. what we find now is that if the speaker goes on television and leevens a crack in the armour, say an offer to come up with $700 billion or $800 billion in new revenue, something that this president campaigned on, instead of having the president call the speaker and say, mr. speaker, i think we're getting somewhere, why don't you come over and we'll get together around the kitchen table and just talk about this. i think we're getting somewhere. . . instead the speaker is blasted by the press shop at the white house within hours of his making a presentation on the sunday morning talk shows. now, -- and people wonder why we can't solve these problems? there is a way to solve these problems. we know what to do to solve these problems. i compliment the lady from tennessee for her hard work to solve these problems. to illustrate for the american people that there's room for compromise in washington. and i salute your efforts to reach out to everyone, to the american people and across the aisle, to make that happen. madam chairman, i yield back with my compliments. mrs. blackburn: i thank the lady for yielding back and i have to tell you i loved her alice in wonderland example. sometimes i feel like we should read "the emperor has no clothes" because we're spending money we don't have or maybe "goldylocks and the three bears" because it's never quite right what seems to be presented. by the way, mr. speaker, you know, i know our colleagues appreciate mrs. lummis and what she does, but when she talks about the treasurer, the nation's treasurer coming forward and having something that never comes into balance, she knows what she's talking about. she was a state treasurer. in wyoming before she came to congress. she knows these issues. she knows how you balance a governmental budget. she is an expert in these issues. and to have a budget where you say you never plan for it to balance? well, when my children were growing up and they were struggling and something was going to be too much of a heavy lift or too hard, i would say, if you failed to plan, then you plan to fail. for this great nation, for the endurance of freedom, failure is not an option. and it is imperative that the fiscal house of this great nation be put in order. someone who knows hue to do that so very well, who has done it as a wife, a mother, a state legislator and a small business owner is mrs. hartzler from missouri and i yield to you. ms. hartzler: thank you, lady. i sure appreciate your leadership on this issue, in drawing attention to the very real crisis that we have in this country and a very real opportunity we have. you know, the real issue that is before us today is that it's time for washington to stop spending money it doesn't have. and the fact that washington has a spending problem, not a taxing problem. you know, the president's proposal is a nonstarter and it's a red herring. it might sound good to some but it doesn't solve the problem. and we are problem-solvers. and that's what we're here to do. even if we gave the president what he wants and raised taxes on family business owners in america, it would only generate enough revenue to fund the government for eight days. it would not make a dent in our yearly deficit or reduce our national debt. only by creating jobs and reducing spending will we balance our budget and the american people understand that. you know, lady, i would love to share with you a few comments that i received, i don't know about you and your office, but i received hundreds of emails and phone cause from people at who -- calls from people at home who want to weigh in on this issue. i love their commonsense advice. the best knowledge and expertise on these issues is from the people. it's not from the bureaucrats here in washington, d.c. and here's just a few of the comments that i received this week from people back home. mike says, the issue is not the raising of taxing but good, solid budget cuts. curtis from lebanon said, there's still a bunch of us out here that do not want a spend and tax to government -- a spend-and-cut government. new taxes means new spending. i thought that was a great comment. especially with the president's proposal that he brought forth the other day, that he wanted more stimulus spending. so the cuts he was proposing, just like curtis said, were just going to be immediately funneled over to new wasteful stimulus spending. they would have nothing to do with reducing the debt or deficit. i thought curtis was right on. we had laurence from pleasant hill and he said, good morning, representative hartzler. i know we're being told we are at the edge of a fiscal cliff. we did not arrive there by not paying enough taxes. the federal government spends insane amounts of money and even by reducing us all to serfs, the taxes will not cover the spending. well said. here's jerry from lamar. she said, please stop spending our money. walk away from the table if they're not willing to stop wasting our hard-earned money. reform the entitlements and lower the taxes. nothing else in my opinion is acceptable. do not go back to the clinton era. that administration led use in a recession and do not raise the inheritance tax. and then listen to this, she said, i am from a family of farmers. that will kill our family and many others and make it impossible to keep farms that have been in our family for generations. that is the most unfair tax there is. this country will not survive more blows to small business and the middle class. stop the insanity and stop it soon. and finally from patrigsa in jefferson city, she said, i want to voice my opinion on what's happening in washington right now. politicians have put us in this mess with excessive spending. i want to see huge spending cuts out of the federal spending before i see any taxes. now, that's common sense. that's the voice of the american people. you know, missouri is the show-me state. and i believe it's time for washington to show the hardworking taxpayers of my state and every state that they understand it's time for washington to do what we do at home and that's live within our means by cutting spending, tightening our belts and not raising taxes on any american. washington would be better off focusing on job creation to raise revenue rather than taking more money from its citizens. so that's the common sense from missouri i wanted to share tonight and i sure appreciate your leadership on this issue tonight. mrs. blackburn: i thank the gentlelady. i know you're doing a telephone town hall with your constituents tonight and i know you'll probably hear some of the same things as you've said and i've heard from my constituents, too. i heard from one lady who is a small business owner and she said, you know, i wouldn't mind if my taxes went up. and it helped pay down the debt. but she was astounded when she found out that the president wanted to spend this much and more and that her taxes would not go down. and, i mean, the money raised from the tax hike would be spent , plus another $1 trillion, and that she was not going to see the debt paid down. she was very concerned about that. well, coast-to-coast we're hearing the same thing and the gentleman from colorado, mr. tipton, is also on the phone with his constituents and we appreciate that you're here on the floor with us. i yield to the gentleman. mr. tipton: i thank the gentlelady from tennessee for this time and for her leadership on this important issue for every american. i'm glad to hear my colleagues continue to talk about the real issue that we face in this country. we did not tax our way to a $16.3 trillion debt in this nation. the federal government spent its way into that debt. the response -- the responsibility that we need to have that comes from the show-me state of missouri, in terms of commonsense proposals, is something that needs to be heard in washington, d.c. this president has been focused on raising taxes. he is implying that washington, d.c., needs the money more than our people at home. if you come into my district, third congressional district of colorado, we go to pueblo, the real unemployment rate is now at better than 20%. my second largest community, grand junction, colorado, the real unemployment level is at 19.5%. my folks aren't working for an unemployment check. they're looking for a -- looking for an unemployment check. they're looking for a paycheck. they're looking for responsibility out of washington. and when we're looking at this fiscal challenge that we face, this fiscal abyss, a fiscal black hole, which is engulfing the economy of the united states , we need that responsibility out of washington. how are our dollars being spent? are they being spent wisely or does washington continue to waste the efforts and the hard-earned capital of the american people? let me give you a few exampleless. we had $700,000 that came out of the pockets of hardworking americans, to be able to conduct a study on methane gas from dairy cows. now, the gentlelady from tennessee, you've got a few dairy operations in your state. i think we could have saved $700,000, it comes naturally. we need common sense when it comes to handling the american taxpayers' dollars. had another $137,530 of american taxpayer dollars that was used to be able to create a video game called layoff. that's what the policies of this administration have literally yielded. we are not growing the economy. putting people back to work. as we approach this christmas season, we have families across the country right now that are hoping to be able to provide for their children. we can create that certainty by addressing an unwieldy regulatory process that's inhibitting our ability to be able to create jobs. and if washington needs revenues, then we know that government needs some revenues to carry out specific function, let's get the american people back to work. those folks in pueblo and grand junction, colorado, who actually want to be able to have a job. but we need to be very concerned once again, where's that waste of the federal dollars going? the gentlelady from tennessee noted that $1.5 trillion of the debt of this country is owned by china. so what does the united states do? we sent $17.8 million american to china to be able to study environmental programs and social programs in china. so effectively what we did, we borrowed money from china to be able to send it back to china to be able to study problems there. let's get americans back to work. we took another $2.6 million to be able to train chinese prostitutes not to drink too heavily. i think we have a better use for american dollars. right now, america is facing a fiscal challenge a fiscal event. the problem resides not with americans being taxed too little, but government spending too much. we have a caucus that's dedicated to getting americans back to work, to bringing fiscal sanity into the process. and to never, ever forget it is not washington, d.c.'s money, it's the american people's money. let's stand up to them first rather than for more and bigger government. with that, i yield back. >> i thank the gentleman, so well said. jobs, the economy, economic growth. mrs. blackburn: we have to have economic growth. continuing to raise tax rates, continuing to escalate spending, doesn't do that. what we want to see is a healthy economy for our future. a healthy economy is going to give us jobs growth. jobs is going to give us the economic growth and prosperity that is necessary for today, for tomorrow, far healthy economy in this nation. we know that a healthy economy is going to lead to continued economic freedom and thereby political freedom. we know that freedom leads to brighter futures for our children and grandchildren. that's what we want. we want these children to dream big dreams and live in an america where they can come true. some of you share passion on this issue. steve scalise, a congressman from louisiana, recently elected as the leader of the republican study committee for the next congress. i yield to the gentleman from louisiana. mr. scalise: i thank the gentlelady for her leadership, not only for hosting this hour but for being so passionate about the need to control spending, and the need to get the economy back on track. she was talking about about solutions to avert the fiscal cliff. if if you look at how we got here, nothing gets resolved out of washington, it's an abyss that doesn't need to happen. if you just go back and look at the promises made by poth because massachusetts when he was running for office, when he was running for re-election, he talked about working across the aisle he talked about bipartisan solutions he talked about it a lot and the american people expected that the president would keep that promise. but before the ink was even dry, before some of the states had confirmed and finalized their vote totals for this last election, the president comes out with a hyper partisan solution that's his approach. when the president comes out with his plan to raise taxes on some, not renew ores, to threaten middle class families with a tax increase if some people don't get their taxes raised, there already was a bipartisan solution to avert this cliff. just a few months ago, here in this house, we passed a bill with 19 democrat votes. a strong bipartisan vote to make sure nobody see theirs taxes go up, completely avoiding this coming crisis. we passed that bill and sent it to the senate. of course the senate's refused to take any action on it. because president obama and his treasury secretary i think has on firmed this, they're eager to go off the cliff. they think they'll get political points by doing thises that political calculation by them to try to plame the other party and you know, let's have this crisis and go and push more taxes on the american people. if you look at what the message of this campaign was, there were a lot of messages. one was people wanted us to work together on bipartisan solutions and we've got those bipartisan solutions to avert this crisis but also to avert so many of the other crises facing this nation. another thing they said, probably the loudest thing people said is they want us to focus on the economy and creating jobs. that's what's the biggest concern for most families across the country. people in southwest louisiana. they're concerned about a sluggish economy and in many cases it's the policies coming out of washington creating these problems. if you want to say, will tax increases solve any of these problems? let's look at history. we've combed through and there has never been a time in modern history where raising taxes got you to a balanced budget. never. it's never happened. last time that a republican house has balanced a federal budget was back in the year 2000. not that long ago. seems like a long time ago. washington has balanced its budget. we were living within our means back then. we weren't doing it through tax increases, it was done through controlled spending. the last time a democrat house balanced the federal budget was 1969. so maybe there aren't many people around here on the democrat side who know how to balance a budget. but you don't do it by raising taxes. john f. kennedy, when he pushed through his economic plan that got things going in the 1960's, it was through tax cuts. go back and look at the quotes. some of the best quotes against growth in government, against tax increases, were made by john f. kennedy jr. when he pushed for a tax cut that ultimate was passed by president johnson. where do you get economic growth? look at those years in the 1960's when they cut taxes. a will the of jobs were created. in the 1980's when ronald reagan cut taxes, tremendous economic growth. one of the greatest times in history. ultimately, you look at the deficits in those periods it came because you had a congress that didn't control spending even with more money. you look at the bush tax cuts, that's what we're talking about here today. the expiration of the 2001 and 2003 tax rates. when those tax cuts were put in place in 2003, back after that happened, within three years, within three years of tax cuts, the federal government took in 40% more money. you wouldn't believe that if you listened to some of the mainstream media. you would think that cutting tacks takes money away from government, you need to raise taxes to bring in revenue. the opposite is true when you look at history. forget about what politicians in washington tell you who want to take more of your money to spend on big government, when they cut taxes in 2003 within three years, the federal government took in 40% more money. mrs. blackburn: if the gentleman would yield, i think that's such an important point to make is when you raise the rates, which is a regressive action, as you look at tax policy, what you do is drive down the revenues. it's what the president said, mr. speaker, is that he wants more revenue, the way to get to more revenue is to clean up the code, to actually lower your tax rates, and to generate more economic activity and growth so that we can begin to grow and reshape our way out of this. you're never going to tax your way out of it. you can't spend your way out of it. and certainly, and i want to invite the gentlelady from new york into this, because she's a physician, she knows with all the obamacare taxes, that you're not going to be able to deliver health care. with escalating the taxes that are on the books pertaining to obama care. i yield to the gentlelady. >> i think the gentlelady for leading this session. indeed it's true. as of january 1, 2013, in fact, congresswoman, there will be five new burdens, new tax burdens on the american people related to the enormous cost of the federal takeover of our health insurance and in certain respects of our health care. for one thing, and this is really, really a sad thing, right now families with special needs children can use pretax dollars, they can protect those dollars to spend them on care and even education for their special needs children in flexible savings accounts. as of january 1, 2013, one of the new tax burdens on those families and on every family that relies on a flexible savings account will be that they will be limited to $2,500 per year. that's it. now 2003 igs at some of the schools for a special -- for special needs children run to many thousands of dollars a year. $10,000 or more. used to be that families could use those dollars for their special needs children. now they won't be able to. does that seem fair? it doesn't to me. mrs. blackburn: you said there are five tacks that go on january 1. if your keeg -- if our colleagues want to look at this list of taxes are they listed on your website? ms. hayworth: we will post a link. i'm not sure they are right now but we will post a link. taxes will go up on seniors, fixed income, on our savers, that's another burden the new taxes will be related to health care and there are three others other than the flexible savings. mrs. blackburn: as the gentlelady yields back to the gentleman from louisiana, i would think the republican study committee has this linked on their website so people can see the taxes that are already going to go up on them because of obamacare. and we reiterate that what we want to do is lower the spending and get the fiscal house in order and i yield to the gentleman from louisiana. mr. scalise: i thank the gentlelady from tennessee again for yielding and the gentlelady from new york for pointing those important facts out. if you look at an important point that was just brought up, under obamacare, there were more than 20 different tax increases in obamacare, many of which, by the way, hit the middle class. sure in obamacare, the president went after the rich people he despices so much, he's happy to take your -- their money during elections, but he also went after middle class families this medical device tax -- the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman's time has expired. mr. scalise: -- mrs. blackburn: the speaker is telling me our time has expired. we were joined by the gentleman from tennessee, i regret we're out of time. we have solutions, the fiscal house has to be brought intoed offer. i thank my colleagues for joining me on the floor tonight to help make the point to the american people, we are going to stay with this fight and solve the problem, our children and grandchildren deserve it. i yield back, mr. speaker. the speaker pro tempore: under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the chair recognizes the gentleman from new york, mr. higgins, for 30 minutes. mr. higgins: thank you, mr. speaker. we hear a lot of the rhetoric on debt and deficit and i think it requires a recent review of history. less than 12 years ago, the united states budget had a $250 billion budgetary surplus. $258 billion. meaning we were taking in $258 billion more each year than we were spending. that budget surplus 12 years ago was a direct result of having created 22 million private sector jobs in the previous eight years. underscoring the fact that the best tax policy is bringing back lost taxpayers to productivity, more people contributing to the federal treasury, and less people dependent on governmental programs. that will $258 billion budget tear surplus was used as justification to enact tax cuts in 2001, in 2003. those tax cuts disproportionately benefited the wealthy. the supply side theory if you ascribe to it, says if you give large tax cuts to the very wealthy, that that money will find its way back into the economy in new business investment and job growth. eight years later, we have the worst recession in the history of this nation and we have the worst job loss in 60 years. in 60 years. this economy is not growing to the extent it needs to in order to produce employment. it's growing about 1357b9% to 2%, not enough to sustain the current level of employment today. meaning that without additional growth in this economy, we will have increases in unemployment in this nation. so what do we need to do? we need to invest in the american economy. we need to nation build, not in iraq, not in afghanistan, but right here at home in america. after the tragedy of september 11, 2001, we were chasing the losers of globalization, al qaeda, lane, two bad -- bin laden, two bad elements that had to be dealt with. but we should have been also chasing the winners of globalization, those economies like china and india that were investing in their own economies and their own people to produce job growth. that's what's needed here. those who do all the complaining about spending around here are those who are responsible for all the spending. in fact, in fiscal year 2013 we will have a $900 billion budget deficit. attributable to the bush tax cuts, $137 billion for the cost of war, $354 billion in the lingering impact from the recession. what we need to do is invest in america, in infrastructure, in scientific research and in education. it's a different world. we need to compete more effectively and do what other countries are doing. why is it that germany, a country that has 1/4 of the population of the united states, exports more than what the united states does? because if you look at our tax code, that's broken, it needs reform, industries in the united states that are employing americans are given two-year tax credits and we expect those american companies to make generational commitments on a two-year tax credit. you look at places like germany, they're providing 10-year tax credits that sends a signal, a signal of certainty, a signal of clarity to businesses in germany, that there is a commitment to embrace innovation and technology, to remain competitive in the manufacturing economy. manufacturing today is not labor-intensive. it's capital-intensive. you always have to be in a continuous improvement mode. but that requires one thing. it requires a confidence in the american people, a confidence in the american worker, in making the kind of commitments that are necessary to compete with china. i often hear people on this floor, every day, whining about china. yeah, china cheats on their currency. they treat their workers poorly. they destroy their environment. but the best response to china's growth is to stand up and compete. and not whine about china. most american jobs are not outsourced to china, they're outsourced to the past. because we fail to make the kind of investments that are necessary to keep the economy growing. so what's the answer to all of this? every economist that you talk to, regardless of their political persuasion, will tell you that we have a growth problem. so how do you grow your economy? you invest in it. the new america foundation, a press contingentous think -- a prestigious think tank here in washington sends that we should spend, that's right, we should spend and invest $1.2 trillion in a five-year nation building program right here in america -- right here in america. that nation building program will create 27 million jobs over the next five years. adding $5.-- 5.2 million in the first year alone. 5.2 million jobs in the first year alone. or 433,000 jobs each month. can you imagine if in the spring of 2013 that we had jobs reports that were showing that we were adding 400,000 to 500,000 jobs each month? this economy would soar. unemployment would be reduced. in the first year alone to 6.2%. and in the second year to 5.6%. this added growth in the economy would return $592 billion to the treasury in increased tax receipts. so the $1.2 trillion that you invest in rebuilding this nation , that you invest in putting unemployed people back to work, returning veterans from iraq and afghanistan, will produce almost $600 billion in economic growth while we're rebuilding the infrastructure of this nation. and i will tell you we need to rebuild the infrastructure of this nation. the american society, a civil -- of civil engineers gives us a d rating for the quality of our infrastructure. the world economic forum says that we're 24th, 24th in structurally deficient infrastructure. in 2001 we made all those investments in the american economy, we were number two in the quality of our infrastructure. transportation for america says that there are 63,000 structurally deficient bridges in this nation. in new york state alone there are over 2,000 bridges that are structurally deficient. in my hometown of western new york -- wore clefter, new york, there are 99 bridges -- worcester, new york, there are 99 bridges that are structurally deficient. cars drive on the bridges, carrying our families, that are structurally deefficient -- deficient. this is pathetic. the electricity grid in this nation ranks 32nd in the world in reliability, an embarrassment. the united states chamber of commerce, that should be leading this effort, that should be leading this effort to invest in the american infrastructure by investing in american businesses and investing in american workers, says that we lose, because of the poor quality of our infrastructure, $336 billion in lost growth over the next five years alone. the united states department of transportation says that freight, train, bottle necks cost our economy $200 billion a year or 1% of our economy. the federal aviation administration, air traffic delays cost $33 billion last year. we need to double spending on ports by the year 2020 or lose, or lose another $270 billion in exports. china, keep complaining about china, but you know what? they spent about 9% of their economy on infrastructure, on roads and bridges, on doing nation building right in their home. europe spends 5%. the united states spends less than 3% of its economy on infrastructure improvements. so, the need is very clear. so as this congress, is washington responding to the need? well, not really. not really. think about this for a moment. this congress will spend $105 billion next year on rebuilding the roads and bridges of this nation. a nation of 300 million people, where every objective observer understands the need for infrastructure investment. so less than $53 billion in each of the next two years. we can't spend any more, right? well, wait a minute, you just spent $89 billion rebuilding the roads and bridges of afghanistan . you spent $67 building the roads and bridges of iraq. those nations are 30 million and 26 million respectively. yet for a nation of 300 million people you could only come up with less than $53 billion in each of the next two years. when the american society of civil engineers says, just to bring your infrastructure to a state of good repair, it will cost you $2.2 trillion, it's weak. in fact, it's pathetically weak. so the lessons about economic growth are found in our recent history. and the lessons of austerity, unfortunately, are right in front of us. in 1937 when the american economy was coming out of the great depression we showed signs of anemic growth. as opposed to spending more to invest in that growth, the president and congress pulled back in 1937 and what happened? the economy went back into recession again. in the 1990's, in japan, they tried extensive austerity measures, only to put that economy into a recession for an entire decade. in europe today and over the past two years austerity measures have prolonged. not taken that area out of recession. in greece, you often hear members of this house who say the united states economy is going to be like greece. oh, really? greece is not growing. greece has lost 25% in its economy in the past five years. greece's economy shrunk by 7% this year alone. there's a 20% unemployment rate in greece and even higher for younger people. greece doesn't make anything that the rest of the world wants. the american economy is dynamic. the american economy always needs to be improving with education, scientific research and infrastructure investment. so, a rational system, a rational political system would respond much differently than what is going on here in this congress. we're talking about spending cuts and allowing tax cuts that haven't produced economic growth to be extended. all of the people that are talking about spending did all the spending. they are the debt and deficit creators. if we want to experience economic growth we have to invest in this economy. and it's critically important to the future of this nation. medical research. we need to enhance not cut funding to the national institutes of health and the national cancer institute. you know, 30 years ago if you were diagnosed with cancer fewer than 50% of those who were diagnosed lived beyond five years of their diagnosis. because of a robust commitment to cancer research in the 1990's under a democratic administration, now the survival rate beyond five years for adults is 60% and for kids it's 80%. you're investing into medical research, into scientific research to create the jobs of the 21st century. i know that from my community right in buffalo, in western new york. that gave the nation and the world cancer research. that gave the nation and the world chemotherapy. in 1904. making those investments have created a new dynamic economy in downtown buffalo which used to be a manufacturing economy. it's called the roswell park institute. the first comprehensive cancer institute in the entire nation is leading the job growth there with 12,000 new jobs. 12,000 new jobs projected to grow another 4,000 over the next five years. because you had a nation that had the confidence in our scientific community to make the kind of investments that create a diversified and strong economy so that we're not outsourcing jobs of the past, we're investing to create jobs for the future. manufacturing in this nation is not dead. it will die if you continue to simply whine about china. you need to make the investments in worker training, in new technology, in innovation, to ensure that the workers that were required 20 years ago, go four or five on one piece of machinery, now you have one worker on four pieces of machinery. this is what you have to do in order to remain competitive in this world economy. all the books have been written. he doesn't argue that the american economy is slipping quickly or deeply. he calls it the rise of the rest . that other economies are investing in their people and in their future. tom freedman and mike mandalbom who wrote the book "that used to be us: how america fell behind the world it invented" says that because of information technology, regardless of size, distance and increasingly language, every country now can participate in a global platform to realize the great economic benefits of globalization. you can't compete in the new world and the new economy without making investments in your people, your infrastructure and the scientific research that's important. china over the next couple of years will catch up to us in terms of the number of patents it produces. patent production is an indication of future economic growth. we used to lead the world for the past 75 years in the number of patents that we produced. china will over take us. that's a -- overtake us. that's a direct result of not investing in your own people and in scientific research. as i have said throughout this discussion tonight, there are many other areas that we can go into. but the bottom line is this, all this talk about debt and deficit , 12 years ago we had a budgetary surplus in this nation of $258 billion. now we have record deficits. that surplus was created because we had the confidence to invest in the american people, to do nation building right here at home. and a strong, prosperous america is the best america in terms of our foreign policy as well. we've become the aspiration for the rest of the world, when america is doing what it ought to be doing, when it doesn't fear its own people, when it seeks not to divide the nation but bring it together. you know, hubert humphrey once said that the greatest foreign policy initiative of the johnson administration was the civil rights act. now, although it was a domestic policy, what he was saying was that when america acknowledges its mistakes, when america lives up to its ideals, it becomes an inspiration, an inspiration for the rest of the world. all those areas of the economy that tom friedman writes about in -- that used to be us. we cultivated great artists but also the greatest economy in the history of the world. people that couldn't demonstrate , rastapouvich couldn't conduct an orchestra in his free land, he -- in his homeland, he came to america because we are a free nation that celebrates the arts and produces economic growth and opportunity for generations of people. so tonight, i channel my colleagues in the united states congress to stand up for america, to do nation building -- nation building here at home by investing in their own people. not $89 billion in rebuilding the roads and bridges of afghanistan but $1 trillion to rebuild the roads and bridges of america. not $60 billion to rebuild the roads and bridges of iraq but $1 trillion to rebuild the roads and bridges of america. everybody here talks a great game about thanking our veterans for their service but you know what the problem is? we have returning veterans from iraq and afghanistan who experience an unemployment rate of 30%. if you want to say thank you on behalf of a grateful nation, create an economy that gives them an opportunity to realize their full potential as individuals. 67% of the deaths of american soldiers in afghanistan are attributed to improvised explosive devices. 64% of the deaths in iraq were attributed to moimp -- improvised explosive devices. you know how you defite an i.e.d.? don't be there. don't be there. so we need to do nation building here at home. we need to grow this economy by investing in it, to reduce debt and deficit and create employment opportunity for future yen rations. with that, i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. under the speaker's announced policy of january 5, 2011, the chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois, mr. dold, for 30 minutes. mr. dold: thank you, mr. speaker. mr. speaker, this institution, the united states house of representatives, enjoys a rich heritage that continues to inspire. through these magnificent halls and this great chamber, celebrated american leaders have walked. presidents have rallied a nation and monumental policy debates have echoed throughout the night to forge america's great history. this building right here is the fulfillment of what our founding fathers sought when skirmishes first broke out on the fields of lexington and concord nearly two and a half centuries ago. it's what each succeeding generation of americans stepped forward to safeguard in their own way. it's what we have been entrusted to build on and ultimately gift to our children. here we are. working each and every day to prove ourselves worthy of the country we inherited, the people we are here to represent, and the limitless future we hope to build. mr. speaker, i decided to run for congress just over three and a half years ago. the basement of my home serving as our team's first office. we didn't have much space or even a sign on the street. but we were all driven by the idea and firm belief that our clint' best days are in front of us. that we can get our economy roaring again. it has been quite a journey from that humble start to working here in the united states capitol each and every day. but the great thing about america is that this story isn't so unique. since its very inception, we have always been a place where what starts as small gatherings of concerned citizens, individuals getting to discuss and plan how to make the country even better can grow with hard work and dedication to actually achieve some of those very things. i first ran for congress not because i wanted to be somebody but because i wanted to do something. in fact, i wanted to do a great many big things. with so many millions of americans struggling to find a job and economic security, i wanted to get this economy growing and get our country back to work. with so many small businesses finding it harder and harder to keep their doors open each and every day, i wanted to fight for small business owners like myself and make sure that the federal government did a better job of helping to create an environment where small businesses and entrepreneurs can succeed. with our country buried in debt and the problem only scheduled to get worse, i wanted to rein in the reckless overspending in washington, d.c. and advance big solutions so that my children, so that our children, could be free to reach their potential without previous generations' debt obligations holding them back. with at thes to our -- with threats to our national security grow big the day and with an iranian regime defiantly pursuing its nuclear ambitions, i wanted it to be not -- i wanted to be not just a vote in the congress but a leading voice. i wanted to advance vital measures to keep our nation and allies strong and secure. with the 10th district serving as home to so many great communities, great businesses, great schools, passionate leaders throughout our communities, bright people and treasured natural resources, i wanted to provide the thoughtful, independent leadership in congress that our district has had and so richly deserves. with our nation seemingly torn apart by hyper partisan politics and gridlock, i wanted to prove we could still get things done. if we were serious about working together in good faith and finding common ground solutions to move our country forward. we've certainly gone through tough times recently but i've always believed in the resiliency of the american people to make things better. we have been able to achieve great things because our natural instinct is to aspire to achieve great things. this is why i am here. and this is why i have worked to accomplish every -- this is what i have worked to accomplish each and every day i've been in office. these past years we made sure to hit the ground running because that's what the 10th district expects. stretching north along lake michigan, the -- from chicago to waukegan, from libertyville, pal tyne east to lake forest and lake bluff, highland park west through buffalo grove and long grove, i've been fortunate to represent a diverse condition gregsal district that asks its lawmakers in washington to tackle a wide ranging agenda. with so many good people at home in the 10th district and here in the united states congress, we have been able to achieve a number of things i will forever be proud of. in the house of representatives, we've kept a sustained focus on job creation and on creating a climate that better helps the private sector grow. i believe that this represents the best path to ensuring sustained economic opportunity and upward mobility for millions of americans. the house has passed over 30 bills that focus on job creation. i'm pleased that the house unanimously passed the jobs focused initiative that i introduced, the global investment in american jobsing at this bill earns strong bipartisan support and i look forward to it hopefully getting signed into law before year end. but our efforts to help get people back to work most obviously don't start and end with legislation in washington, d.c. washington doesn't create jobs. the private sector, entrepreneurs and small businesses do. that's why over the course of the last two years, we put together a 10th district task force focused on jobs and also hosted several highly successful jobs fairs back at home. these jobs fairs brought together local hiring employers with hundreds of job seekers and made a real impact on people's lives. we also organized and hosted events with local exporters an manufacturers instructing them how to leverage the export-import bank and new passages opened up by trade afwreems to grow jobs here at home. i supported thee things because i want to do everything i can to help businesses an workers in the 10th district and around the country succeed. i've been proud that my time in congress has allowed me to continue to champion the cause of small business growth. to make sure that small businesses know that they always have a strong advocate for their issues with me in the united states congress. over the past few years, i have had the pleasure of touring and visiting literally thousands of small businesses in the 10th district of illinois. to do this, i -- i do this so i can hear directly from our local business community and more importantly the thousands of constituents who work in these businesses. about what washington can do better. -- better to help them. we did employee town halls at places like cobart packages, we talked idea with leaders of companies. i always enjoy visiting with our district's many store front business owners, whether on milwaukee avenue or one of the many beautiful main streets throughout the district. to some the big issue is we -- making sure we have smaferter, better crafted regulations to take advantage of the unique nature of an industry. we passed legger to reform bills to improve the quality of this process and written letters to ensure the rules are responsible and not excessively burdensome. we need regulation. we just want that regulation to be smart regulation and tailored regulation. not simply more of it. many employers talk to me about the importance of increasing manufacturing and trade opportunities. i've been very happy to advance these issues in congress as part of a trade working group. and know that the trade agreements we pass with south korea and panama and colombia continue to have a pozzive influence on manufacturers in the 10th district and around the country. i'm please wed made progress on improving opportunities with russia but we have much more work to do in order to level the playing field regarding trade. other small businesses talk to me about the need to have a highly skilled work force that's better trained an prepared to take jobs in the 21st century. out of this grew my legislation, the back-to-work blueprint act which would inject money into the worker training program and ensure that skills of the worker match the needs of the employer. this strengthened my belief that we need to continue to promote stem education in america's schools, science, technology, engineering -- engineering and mathematics. skills necessary to make sure students are prepared to take jobs in the 21st century. nearly every business owner shared the importance, mr. speaker, of access to capital and credit for their businesses. capital is the life blood of our economy. i'm pleased that we focused in on this in this congress with the passage of the jobs act and other legislation that came out of the financial services committee. of course many employers and small business owners and individual workers talked with us about the importance of keeping tax burden low and making sure our tax code was fairer and simpler. over the past two year, i have been proud to champion this through my active support for comprehensive reform that is focused on low rates, eliminating the lobbyist loopholes, broadening the base loopholes, broadening the base and focusing on economic growth.

Transcripts For CSPAN Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20131023

everybody needs to sit down and work together. we just complicate things. thank you. from one vietnam era veteran to another. let me thank you for your comments. i agree completely about the need to sit down. --guest: a national grassroots organization of democrats, republicans, and independents dedicated to the proposition of stopping to fight each other and starting to fix the country. if you're interested in finding out more, you can go to nolabels .org. the onlyhe venue for serious bipartisan discussion going on in washington during the entire. --the government shutdown period of the government shutdown. there are going to have to be a lot more people doing that. host: how do you see that playing out in the house-senate budget conference? in most religions, despair is a sin. therefore, i am commanded to be hopeful for the budget conference. [applause] [laughter] if the goals are defined modestly that an agreement can be achieved -- if we are still reaching for the grand bargain, i doubt very much that december 13, 2013 represents an achievable date for that grand bargain. you put together president obama's budget proposal and chairman paul ryan's counterproposal in his wall -- withinrnal op-ed the four corners defined by those two proposals in the senate budget proposal, i think there is room for a serious discussion. mr. ryan is not going to press for some of the more fundamental changes that he had in mind in past years. i think president obama thomas obama, assed, -- witnessed, is willing to compromise. here is the problem. both the white house and senator murray have taken the position that without it -- substantial revenues, there is no compromise. and the republicans will not compromise on new revenues. the republicans are convinced that president obama got his new revenues at the beginning of the year. they did that under duress and they will not yield any more ground. it remains to be seen whether progress can be made subject to those constraints. host: will those constraints jacksoniana party, way of getting things done and roadblocks? do know there are substantial factions in both political parties that object to the terms of a possible compromise. liberal democrats put the administration on notice that they do not regard the proposals in the president's 2014 budget submission as being negotiable. they want those off the table. republicans want taxes off the table. host: massachusetts, democrats line. yes, i wanted to make a about the tea party and jacksonians and etc. he is so right about this country. the republicans really need to wake up and smell the coffee. this is no longer like a white america. they don't want to, with these foreigners, with black males and what happens to them in this -- and all these prisons that all these private people -- we areoney in tired of that. we are tired of our grandchildren looking forward to a future like that. he is so right. they need to wake up am a come together, and sit down with the president and work all this out. this is a different america now. guest: all i can do is repeat what you just said. i think it is god's honest truth. this is a different america now. what are we going to do with this different america? how are we going to make it work for all of us? that is the fundamental question. i don't have all the answers. the brookings institution does not have all the answers. no political party has all the answers. it is the fundamental question. i agree with you. america has always looked forward. nostalgia is a part of our experience, but it has never been the great driver of change in america. it is hoped rather than nostalgia -- hope rather than nostalgia. that american spirit of looking forward is alive and well. country during open immigration from 1880 to 1920. we made a new country work. 21st- build a great century america with that new country. but it is not going away. on the next "washington journal" we will be joined by representative joe barton to discuss the affordable care act and the health insurance exchanges. we will also look at the nation's intelligence gathering agencies and the use of grounds with representative adam schiff. " washington journal" is live on c-span every day at 7:00 eastern. >> the house energy and commerce willttee in on thursday look at the implementation of the affordable care act and its health insurance exchanges. love coverage at 9:00 a.m. eastern -- live coverage at 9:00 a.m. eastern. >> , sos nasa's future goes does the health of america. they will see it written large on the paper. there will be calls to engineers . we are going to dig through the soils of mars and look for ice. look at the nasa portfolio today. it has biology, chemistry, physics. aerospace engineers, mechanical engineers. all of this stem fields. a healthy nasa pumps that. a healthy nasa is a flywheel that society caps on ovations. -- innovations. tv, every weekend on c- span two. economic form on issues affecting women. maryland congresswoman donna edwards held a forum on women's economic agenda in her district at the first baptist church today in maryland. house democratic leader nancy pelosi and maryland senator barbara mikulski. >> i am really delighted to see this packed house. some of the most fabulous woman that you find anywhere. so thank you very much for joining us today. i have the privilege of representing this congressional district and representing a state that the center for american progress has said is the number one state for women in the country. [applause] now, of course, we take great pride in that but we still know we have a lot of work to do. i'm really honored to be here today with our senior senator, our mentor, our friend, our senator barbara mikulski. and most delighted to welcome somebody who is not a stranger either to prince george's county or to maryland or to the fourth district, our democratic leader, nancy pelosi. [applause] i want to take a special moment to thank even in his absence pastor john jenkins sr. and the community here -- i almost said my church, at first baptist church of glen arden. and the shabat consistian academy. we did a tour of the academy and saw some of the amazing learning that is going on at the earliest age here at the academy. and so it's our delight to be able to be here and to share that with first baptist of glen arden. and to know that you're such a truly great partner in our community on a whole range of things. at this church you don't view just what you do inside the walls, but you say that your service is outside the walls of the church and it really shows in the academy and the faces and the energy of those young people. i also want to acknowledge, and i see them, so many of our elected officials from the region, and i want to take a minute to acknowledge them and to know that we're just really delighted that you also could join us because whether you're mayors or you're in our county, representing our county, or you're statewide, you understand the importance of the work that we're engaged in together. so i want to recognize our states attorney, angela alsobrooks. [applause] i probably should have said first my good friend, dear friend, carmen walker brown, who is representing lieutenant governor anthony brown here today. welcome, carmen. [applause] delegate aisha brayfoy who represents a district in the maryland house of delegates and is the chair of the legislative black caucus. [applause] the clerk of the circuit court here. thank you, marlin, for joining us. [applause] let's see. and we have -- i keep -- i'm going down the list but i should just actually look at you. delegate araianna kelly. thank you for joining us. delegate aruna miller. also from montgomery county. my friend, sister and soulmate and childhood friend, valerie irvin, a member of the montgomery county council. mayor of a tremendous city, a lot of energy, of forest heights here in maryland, jacklin goodall. and i don't think that i've missed anyone. because i'm looking around. but thank you all very much for joining us. you know, when leader pelosi got together with the democratic women's working group, i chaired the democratic women's working group, and that is the women members of the house of representatives and we talked with each other and among us and also with a lot of our allies out in the community and running grassroots organizations, about what was needed in this next step, to really fulfill its true economic agenda for women. and we decided, and we knew that if we could formulate that agenda, we know that when women succeed, america succeeds. and at the core of that success there's things that many of us have worked on and different pieces over the years, but we wanted to put them together. and so visiting these 4-year-olds and 3-year-olds here today and seeing their energy reminded all of us of the importance of investing in early learning, investing in quality, affordble and accessible child care. there's probably not one of us in this room who doesn't have an experience that we can recount about child care. my own, you know, personally, when my son was -- he's now 25, but sometimes when you recount these stories it feels like yesterday. yesterday of paying late fees when you show up late because you're rushing through rush hour traffic, to pick up your child. and seeing the look on his face, but also the people who work at the child care facility. having maybe even made a bad choice like i did once about child care, because it was all that i could afford and it turned out that it was a place that really wasn't safe for him. he ended up with meningitis and i almost lost him. and so all of us struggle in different ways around this issue and so we want an agenda that says that if we invest in early learning and we invest in quality, affordable, accessible child care, that it expands opportunities for women, opportunities for them to succeed in business, in their professions, to succeed at home. we also know that it's important for us to have equal pay for equal work. [applause] now, leader pelosi and i know that in the house of representatives that we get paid the same as our male counterparts. but we also know that our sisters and friends and women around the country don't have that same experience. and the importance -- can you imagine what a family loses when they lose 25% of their income because one family member is not paid equal to their counterparts at work? and then of course a significant part of this agenda is that when we struggle as care givers, whether it's caring for ourselves or for our family members, for our children, and we may need to take a day off, if we're not paid for that day off, can you imagine the decision that you have to make? i know i had to make it as a young mother, to just either go to work sick or take my kid to work with me sick, curl him up in a corner, i've done this before, of a room, while i have a meeting, because i can't afford to take off and i couldn't afford to stay home with him. and these are the struggles that mothers face, families face all across this country. so i'm glad that you've been able to join us today because we know that if we make an investment in this agenda and that's an investment that's going to require the grassroots support of leaders like yourselves all through all of our communities so we can make it a reality for women and families. so i want to thank you again for being here because this is about improving the lives of women and families and the health of our nation's economy. because when you do invest in women in this kind of way, then we invest in the economic success and health of our country. and so, i'd like to have you join me in welcoming some folks who are representatives frankly of a lot of stories that can be told really throughout our communities. and i want to welcome to the microphone a good friend of ours and a real leader, who is in montgomery county. she's originally from egypt. but she's been a resident of montgomery county for over 40 years. she owns and operates three child care centers. and what an amazing progressive woman. she provides paid sick leave for her employees and i'd like to -- to you welcome her. [applause] so that she can tell us why and what it means. mimi. >> good morning. oh, yes, ok. [laughter] yeah. that's better. hey, listen. oh, thank you very much, donna. thank you for. i'm all about empowered woman. so let's get all empowered. get our wings and fly. yes. my name is mimi and i do own three child care and i have a story to share with you. it is an investment. you are absolutely right. and affordable child care could happen. ok? i have in my child care, i offer my staff sick paid leave. the reason i do that is because instead, if that teacher who comes to my child care, and she is sick, she's going to get the kids sick. so it's going to cost me money. if you think about business, it's going to cost me more money if i don't give her the sick day leave. so i offer sick day leave for all my staff. also what really breaks my heart, and i have seen it on a daily basis, ok, we have a policy. a child has to be free 24 hours of fever. it breaks my heart when i see children coming into the school in the morning and coming and telling me, ms. mimi, can you please take care of me because my mom have to go to work? and i'm sick. you know what this parent does? they get their child tylenol, four hours, just four hours so they can go to work, report that they have gone to work, and then they get a call from me, hi, your child is sick, you need to come and pick him up. well, what happened at this time? the child is contagious. so the germs spread. so the diseases infect. you hear about child care or school sometimes, they close. why? because the child is sick. and they go to school -- they go to school. so i'm here all to tell you, it could be done. i'm in business to make money and nobody gets in business to lose money, right? so, even though i am paying sick day leave, i'm still making money. so it could be done. it could happen. so i wish that we can work out together, also when it comes to subsidized money. i have parents who cannot afford to pay the co-pay, ok, because they cannot match. so what i do is i offer them a scholarship. well, maybe i'm an exception, ok? maybe i just have a good heart. but how can i have -- how can i get my message to every child care business, to all the state governments, to everybody who is involved in this, to help this industry, to help those parents? we have all women that work and remember, we're going -- [inaudible] i am here to tell you, please help us. everybody, it is an investment and you need to invest money to get the result. thank you very much. i look forward to seeing you. [applause] >> thank you. i don't need the stool so i'm going to stand back a little bit. [laughter] senator, i heard that. [laughter] i want to take a moment to introduce our next guest. maureen evans arthur graduated in may from the university of maryland in baltimore county. was a b.a. in gender and women's study and political science. she was a first generation college student who went back to school after being a stay-at-home mom for two years. when she was looking to go back to school, she had to engage in some important financial considerations. pay the tuition or pay the daycare? and so i'd like to welcome to the stage maureen evans arthur. [applause] >> good morning, everybody. >> good morning. >> so, yes, as congresswoman edwards said, my name is maureen evans arthers and in may i began the first person in my family to attend college. [applause] thank you. but it wasn't necessarily easy and it almost didn't happen. because of the extremely high cost of child care. so today i stand before you not only as a mcnair research fellow, but also as a mother of a 7-year-old boy named noah. and i was a stay-at-home mom and i loved it. when i decided it was time to go back to school, i did the normal things, supplied recommendation letters, and essentially just kind of went through that same process that we all remember. but then i had to look at child care and so i went to not one and not two but to eight daycare providers where i lived in howard county and the average cost was $1,100 per month. and with the math, that ends up being over $13,000 a year. and so i was really torn. my husband and i. i felt lucky that we only had one child when tons of my friends had multiples. and i was also lucky that he was 24 months old and he was considered a toddler and not an infant because infant care, as many of you might know, is $300 to $400 more expensive than the $1,100 that they quoted me. so i found myself asking, do i even go to school or do i continue to be a stay-at-home mom until he's school-aged, which for him, because he had a late october birthday, would not be until he was 6 instead of 5. so it was very difficult and we just said, you know, we can't afford child care on our own. and as a nontraditional student, i received a combination of merit-based loans so i should not have had -- i essentially got free tuition and books. so i shouldn't have graduated with any student loans whatsoever. but i ended up having to take out almost $30,000 in student loans in order to subsidize child care costs and what my husband and i could not afford. however, i also feel like i'm lucky. i've been out of school for six months and i've been starting to apply for graduate school, but in that process, my husband and i will have to factor in my loan repayments into our already packed family budget just because affordable child care and safe child care aren't synonymous and as congresswoman edwards touched on, we originally enrolled my son in -- i guess would you call it a subpar child care agency, that was about $600 less a month, and within three weeks he had pneumonia. he was rushed to the hospital with a 105-degree feesker and -- fever and instantly i said, you know what, we have to pay the costs. it's not worth my son's life and the stress. and at that point i thought, i'm just done. i'm not going to do school, it wasn't meant to be. then my husband really pushed me to do it and we ended up taking out student loans. and i actually feel like i lucked out, with only $30,000 of student loan debt. 3/4 of which was because of child care. but i was lucky that i only had to pay it for 2 1/2 years as opposed to four years. my son was old enough to eventually attend a preschool that aligned with my school schedule. so i was able to pick him up and go to class when he didn't have to be in child care. and so honestly, if my son had been younger and we had to pay those infant prices, i probably wouldn't have gone back to school. and so understanding the cost associated with child care actually remains one of the reasons why my husband and i will not be expanding our family. which is unfortunate. and too many smart and extremely motivated women end up having to forego and education or a leave of fulfilling a career in order to make sacrifices for their children. and so that's why i and millions of other families like mine really need the women's economic agenda to make sure that these difficult choices become a thing of the past. so, thank you so much for having me. [applause] >> thank you very much. you can see that when you hear stories like that, we just say, we have to do it, we really do have to do it differently. and next to the stage i want to welcome danelle buckman. she's a 37-year resident of clarksford, maryland, who was fired after a pregnancy-related incident by a small employer. she was not covered by the federal family and medical leave act. a new labor department study actually shows that neither of the 40% of work force -- neither are the 40% of the u.s. work force. [applause] >> thank you. it's a true honor to be here. i live in howard county, maryland. i'm here today because in june, 2010, i almost died during child birth. no, it's not the 19th century. the truth is that danger surrounding pregnancy and child birth still exist. thanks to expert medical care my daughter and i survived. the completely unexpected and truly dramatic time for my family -- it started when avery arrived early. in order to save my life and avery's life i had to have a c- section and a hysterectomy. a painful. of recovery. came a painful period of recovery. the added and unexpected thisnser early delivery -- but a burden on our family. amid all this chaos and the , i lost theacing us part-time job that i loved. fmla is designed to help families in emergencies like circumstances like mine. the fmla was an historic law that took place 20 years ago and i'm thankful that many fought so hard for its passage because it meant that tens of millions of families to keep their jobs when health crises rise -- arise. but it's been two decades and like i was, a significant portion of the work force is not protected. that's why i'm so excited that the congressional leaders here today are working with others in congress a new proposal designed to support families when they're out of work for pregnancy, childbirth or to take care of ill family members. having to take that time off without pay causes huge financial strains from families. the time i spent out of work for recovery and job searching resulted in a very rough couple years financially for my family. we were very fortunate to have family and friends support but many people are not so lucky and that's why i ultimately decided to speak up and share my story, to be a voice for women who may not have one or to hopefully inspire others to get involved. no woman or man should have to worry about his or her financial security when serious medical issues or complications arrive for themselves or a member of their family who need their care. it's long past time for leave for this country. -- paid family and medical leave for this country. thanks so much. [applause] >> thank you very much. you know, i sat here and sometimes you can skip lines but i wanted to make sure we wanted to make sure we hear from guests and sharing their stories which are repeated across this country. while there's not been a greater fighter, not just in maryland, but all across the country for women. we get to call her our own, senator barbara mikulski was elected to the united states senate in 1986. she was the first democratic woman elected on her own right and in her own right. [applause] we had the great privilege of being able to celebrate senator mikulski as the longest serving woman elected in her own right in the united states senate. [applause] these days we like to say that she is the chair of the powerful senate appropriations committee. we like to say that in maryland. she is a champion of women, she is the dean of the women in the senate, she's a mentor for women in the senate, a mentor for women in the house. she truly does nurture us. you can tell that senator mikulski, when i first met her, the first thing she shared with me was not all that other stuff. she shared with me that she was a social worker. i think that is so fundamental to the way that she thinks about the needs of women and families and all of our communities all across the country and that's the kind of leadership that she brings in the senate. she will tell you and i'll do it too, that when the lilly ledbetter fair pay act was signed into law, signed by newly sworn president barack obama, it was senator mikulski who led the fight in the senate, our leader who led the fight in the house. [applause] and so please join me in welcoming our great favorite senator, senator barb. [applause] >> good morning, everybody. i'm just delighted to be here at this forum, making sure that america's children are taken care of in the best childcare program that the world can offer. and shouldn't a great country be able to do that? and you know what, for me it's just a delight to get through the last 17 days that we have been through of slamdown, shutdown politics. and to be here with this wonderful turbo team of donna edwards and speaker pelosi working with real issues that the american families have, that we can come up with real solutions. and this is what i am so delighted -- why i am so delighted to be here. during the last several days, there's been a lot of focus on obamacare. well, obama does care, and that's what we're going to talk about here today. [applause] and then it's going to be, well, what can we afford? well, dear friends, somehow or another, we can somehow afford war. now it's time we start taking care of the needs of the american people and begin to build our country again. [applause] and i am so pleased to be the dean and honored to be the dean of the women in the united states senate. that means i am the longest serving. friends, it's not how long you serve but it's how well you serve that makes the difference. and now with 20 of us, 16 democratic women and four republicans, we're working with real issues and we want to extend our hand and our friendship and our clout and know-how at every assignment and every committee assignment to move an agenda forward, to really help american families. now, we the women of the senate, joining with our colleagues, we work on the macroissues. yes, big budget, big foreign policy, big stuff, but you know what, we work on the macaroni and cheese issues. what we bring to the table is what's happening at the kitchen table, what are families talking about, what are they trying to sort out? the kinds of conversations these three wonderful women had, to go to school or not to go to school, the stresses on the family with danelle. she worked for me. she worked with me many years ago. i was taller, she was shorter. [laughter] now here she is, the executive director of a hospice program and look at what she's been through. we've got to focus on the macaroni and cheese issues and that's how we'll impact the macro issues of our country. we need to focus on our families. and that's why i'm so proud with this turbo team in the house -- what the turbo team in the house has done. led by congresswoman donna edwards, the democratic congresswoman's caucus, speaker pelosi at her back encouraging her and helping her in every way possible to come up with this agenda. and we know what the agenda is because we talk with you, we've met with you, we've listened to you and we know that for the american women and american families, first of all, the most important thing in addition to love, you need an income. you need an income that is reliable, that is predictable and means you can have a living wage and this comes to why we need to raise the minimum wage in this country. [applause] and we have to make sure that equal pay for equal work. as many of you might say, senator barb, don't we take care of that with lilly ledbetter? well, lilly ledbetter overturned a supreme court decision that had time limits on when you could bring the suits, but we are for something called paycheck fairness which means when you bring a suit you're not going to be harassed and that you have a right to know what the person standing next to you is paid. most women don't know who -- what the guys are making. and it's not that they don't want to tell you. they'll be fired if they want to be a pal and partner with you. so we want to finish the job we began with lilly ledbetter and we want to make sure we pass paycheck fairness so we truly have equal pay for equal work and you can pursue that agenda in your workplace. that's number one. number two, we believe when you work you should also have the confidence that you're going to have health care. and this is why we supported the affordable care act. we believe in the affordable care act because all of us know as we work, as we were out there in the communities listening to you, particularly listening to the stories, like danelle and maureen and mimi, that the fact is that for just being a woman was a pre-existing condition and they looked for every excuse that they could find to take your health care away from you. and we said, hell, no. our mammograms won't go, our health care won't go and being a woman in america will no longer be counted as a pre-existing condition. did you -- [applause] so in some states, if you had a cesarean, they dropped your insurance. in eight states, if you were a victim of domestic violence, they counted it as a pre-existing condition. so when that guy whose name -- i will not mention in the house, that's trying to huff and puff and blow it away, he says he wants to repeal it and he wants to replace it. i say we will never turn back that being a woman in the united states of america will no longer be regarded as a pre-existing condition. and if you got your health care, you get to keep it. [applause] and then there's the third issue which is education. and education is not only k-12 which we see the wonderful academy we have here and our public schools and our great public school teachers, but education begins from hour one, from day one, from week one, and that's where we come to childcare that's available, affordable, safe and is also educational. we're not talking about warehousing our children. we're talking about taking care of our children. it's called childcare. child education. and that's why we want to really focus on expanding the opportunities to make childcare more available, more affordable, definitely safe and have quality standards where those children have the opportunity to be able to learn and to be regular school ready. that's what we're working on. and in the senate i'm taking the lead on childcare. one of the very first things we want to do is make sure in debate we keep the childcare tax credit. we need to keep the childcare tax credit where you can take up to $3,000 a year as a tax break on -- for childcare. now, if we can give tax breaks to send jobs overseas, we can give tax breaks to american families for able to afford childcare. let's keep that childcare tax credit. [applause] and then for those women who are looking to move ahead in life, that when we look there we also want to re-authorize the community development childcare block grant. that's where i've taken the lead in the senate and forged bipartisan coalitions and we want to pick it up in the house. the childcare development block grant is the primary federal grant program to provide childcare assistance for working families. it was last re-authorized in 1996, and in fact every major program, helping families and children was done under the clinton administration. nothing has happened since then, and now it's the barack obama generation with the new generation of women leadership to make sure we move this forward. nothing new has been done since 1996. no more. in maryland, there are 14,700 families that are served by that program. in the whole country, a million and a half children received that help. so we're putting together to refresh, to reform and to renew the childcare development block grant. that is what was on the agenda in the senate. we've already moved it through the health education committee. i've had the support of two republicans. there are, you should know, real republicans who are compassionate conservatives. you remember that phase? and there are those -- [laughter] i find them -- seek and you shall find. [laughter] and so our agenda in the senate is to join with our sisters in the house to work in common cause with their agenda, the agenda they put together and to be able to move this forward. so we want to be sure that in if all of the debate that when all was said and done, more gets said than gets done, but now it's time to do the job. and you know when you have an easy job, you know who to give it to. when you have a tough job, give it to the women and we'll get it done. may the force be with us. [applause] >> thank you very much, senator mikulski. that's right. when you have a tough job, give it to somebody who can get it done. you know, as you can hear, i mean, the ideas of an economic agenda for women that really envisions quality, affordable and accessible childcare, that envisions equal pay for equal work, raising the minimum wage, expanding opportunities for women, the idea of providing family and medical leave so women have the flexibility that they need to make sure that they and their families succeed. and there has been no greater champion of this economic agenda when women succeed, america skeds, than there is our leader, 25 years-plus in the house, just inducted into the women's hall of fame. say congratulations, our leader, former speaker, going to be speaker again, nancy pelosi. [applause] >> good morning, everyone. i hasten to add, when i was inducted into the women's hall of fame last weekend, i was following in the footsteps of the longest woman in congress, senator barbara mikulski, who preceded me. i was so honored, barbara, you know how thrilling it was, that you would be joined by 19 house democratic women members and people were thrilled when the women came to the stage, all of those women joining us in seneca falls. so much has been said already about when women succeed, america succeeds, an economic agenda for women and families. i want to put it in historical perspective and talk about where we go from here. much of that has been said as well. i want to thank mimi and danelle and maureen about the testimony we need. the personal stories are the strongest. the strongest testimonies we can have and the evidence upon which we want to base our policy. to do so with all of you here under the auspices of congresswoman donna edwards is an honor indeed and to be joined by so many women of so many official families of the region as well, thank you for honoring with us with your presence and blessing the community with your leadership and service. and to be here with senator barb, as she and i went to the same high school some years ago, and i've been following her career and then a big fan and admirer of hers and she's a champion on all of these issues and she and i and donna predicate our priorities on the experience of the american people. as has been said. i want to join others. thank reverend jenkins for inviting us here today, providing this auspices and to go to the academy was something quite remarkable, to see the children and the attention, the quality, affordable attention that they are receiving was quite remarkable. just extraordinary. so here's the thing, at the beginning of this congress, we now had passed the affordable care act, we started to work on the implementation on it. i'm going back to last january. we said, what is it that we can do to change the environment for women so it's no longer a matter of incrementalism, doing a little bit better, it's about doing something very different to unleash the full power of women? when we first won the house in 2006 and the senate then, we were thinking about survival, because as congresswoman barb said, so much had been done for a number of years. so it's about survival. when president obama became president, it was about success, about taking people to a higher level. then we were on the mission to have -- not only survival, success, but to be about transformation, to take people to another height, that anything, maureen, that you decided to do, mimi, the people that you see, danelle, anything is possible. i hearken back to our founders and our forbearers, so we decided, what would these particular issues be. so we had a series of meetings around the country, east coast, west coast, and everything in between to hear what would it be. we had done the affordable care act, as senator barb said. no longer being a woman is a pre-existing condition. remarkable. remarkable. then the violence against women act was accomplished in a bipartisan way eventually and finally. and that was important. but we were just focusing on the workplace. just specifically, many items on the agenda, we wanted to prioritize, what could transform the respect for work of women in the workplace? and we listened to women across the country and we developed and worked with associations like the fair pay coalition, aauw, ywca. they had been working on these issues for a while and came one these three things that had been emphasized. pay, raise the minimum wage. 62% that get the minimum wage are women. we must increase the minimum wage. we did it the first 100 hours when we had the majority in the house and senate in 2007. we raised the minimum wage. but it's time to raise it again and it's long overdue. raise the minimum wage. as senator mikulski has been the lead on, the paycheck fairness act. it's about paycheck fargese. -- fairness. imagine we make -- in many parts of the country, women make 77% of what men make for the same job, same time worked. that's like saying, you're going to work from january, february, march, for free compared to what your male counterparts would do in the same job. that's just not right. it's just not right and we have to pass the paycheck fairness. now, that's one point. to go back to what has been said, to re-emphasize to go forward, this is about -- we pass lilly ledbetter, first bill the president signed. we had been working on it for a long time. we had the president to sign it so that was a beautiful an accomplishment and he wanted that to be a signature issue for him. and that was great. but as the senator said, that's about what recourse you have. it's not about establishing that you should by law have the pay. and then so we have -- paycheck fairness in the house and senate. congresswoman rosa delauro has been the leader on this subject and many of the subjects, as senator mikulski, has been said, not only sponsor but champion. then we talk about paid lead. family medical leave was a great thing. 20 years ago. that, remember, senator barb, was -- one of the first bills that president clinton signed. we had been working on it for a while. we now had a president to sign it. took great pride. that was 20 years ago. as has been said, 40% of women in the workplace do not qualify because -- they don't qualify -- businesses are not large enough to cover. but nonetheless, it's unpaid by and large. it's unpaid. you have to have paid leave. maybe not the full length of the time of family medical leave but some paid leave, and we have that legislation, healthy families act. so these are all possible. we have the bills. it's just a decision. it's about our maneuvering inside but it's about the outside mobilization and that's why we're so glad to see so many leaders on this issues -- these issues. and third is childcare. this is the most transformative. we talked about seneca falls and being inducted in the hall of fame and all the rest, and that time 165 years ago these women, imagine the courage they had to declare that all men and women are created equal and as such we demand to have equal station to which we are entitled, they said. standing on their shoulders, we're standing on their shoulders. the right to vote came decades later. when it came women given the right to vote. women demanded for it, fought for it, marched for it and the rest. [applause] so that's going to take for this. you had that and you had women in the workplace leaving home. that was revolutionary during world war ii. women paying their share of the war effort, putting in their fair share. then you had now women in the workplace and higher education of women, women in the professions. women just having the choice to stay home or be in the workplace at whatever level. but the missing link throughout the whole time was affordable, quality childcare to really enable women to make -- to unleash their power for themselves, for their families, for our economy. as mimi said, this is about making our economy grow. if we unleash the full power in the economy, two to three points, our g.d.p. will increase two to three points. it just will. it's really important. now, senator mikulski, on this subject and the senator talked about the block grant and the tax credit and that's all important, but we also have to go -- use that as a basis and go further. lilly ledbetter, we have to go further. family medical leave, we have to go further. child block grants, tax credit, has to go further. it was on president nixon's desk and he vetoed it for social or cultural reasons. some guys probably said that. whatever it was. but nonetheless -- that's a long time ago. this is our mission. we must have -- this is the most transformative thing we can do for not only women and their families, for men and their families as for our economy. now, just to say a couple things. first of all, we've been listening to stories across the country. you heard some eloquent ones today. what mimi said about kids going to school sick, we hear it all over the country. one woman that we invited in new haven at rosa delauro's home. she got up there. she was telling her story, how she went from a single mom, this, this, got a job. her own success story. she said, let me tell you what i see in my job. i'm a bus driver, school bus driver. and i see kids -- i pull up to the stop -- i know exactly what's going to happen. there will be a mom with tears in her eyes putting a child on the bus that she knows is sick but she has no alternative. she has no -- if she calls in sick -- not go to work, she'll be docked a day of pay which she can't afford. if you do that a couple times, you won't have a job. can't be counted on. different view. nonetheless, if she were to hire, can't afford the childcare, she has no paid sick leave, she has no alternative, child gets sick, throws up, talk about colds, all the rest -- you can just -- you know the story. you know the story. and then you hear stories of a mom, a woman, young woman pregnant, she's working. she has to do heavy lifting. pulls a muscle, whatever, the doctor -- goes to the doctor. ask your boss if you can do some other work for the next few months because you shouldn't be lifting things. the boss says, you don't have to lift anything any more because you don't have a job any more. and this happens. it's happening here and now in the greatest country that ever existed. but you know what, we're going to change that. we're going to change that because we're going to mobilize and bond across the country, focus on a few things. we are going to stipulate some facts that senator mikulski referenced. when you educate children, you're doing so much. this is the key to everything for our country. and so head start, our motto in san francisco and head start, parents -- children learning, parents earning. so when you cut head start in order to reduce the deficit, you -- the children are losing, the teachers of the children are losing. so many can't work. i tell you this, nothing brings more money to the treasury than the education of the american people. whether it's early childhood, k-12, higher education, postgrad, lifetime learning for our workers, nothing -- so when somebody says, i'm cutting head start to reduce the deficit, that's one of the dumbest, with stiff competition, mind you, one of the dumbest suggestions they can make. ok. [applause] so we'll talk some more about some of these things as we go along. but understanding that these are not -- these are increasing the deficit, increasing the deficit. i'll just close by saying this one story that i heard a couple weeks ago in new york when we had the -- a gathering such as this. a mom -- just going to tell you this one story, barbara. and then i have to go. this woman, a young woman gets up there. she has five kids. hispanic woman. english second language. every challenge -- beautiful resource. some would call it a challenge. we call it resource. she tells the story, got the job. supervisor of the region. she was coming to give testimony at the hearing as we heard from mimi, maureen and danelle. i'm so confident now but i wasn't confident before this audience and making this speech. i practiced it on my children last night. and the 4-year-old, after it was over, 4-year-old who was in head start, making the pitch for head start, she said after i gave my speech, i said to the children, what do you think? do you have any questions? and my 4-year-old, who was in head start, i just have one question, mom, who gave you permission to use my name in your speech? [laughter] you go, girl. it's about self-esteem. it's about children learning. it's about being ready for the future. it's about the children, as senator mikulski began her remarks. thank you all very much. [applause] >> senator mikulski, i know she >> senator mikulski, i know she has to leave. before you do, i want to say a very special thank you for your leadership and for being here today. thank you. [applause] and just as senator mikulski makes her way out of the room, i didn't know if there were any questions. what i want to hear from everybody is that you're ready to work on this. are we ready to work on this? [applause] and leader pelosi couldn't be more perfect timing because on saturday, here in prince george's county, the women's commission -- i know there are representatives here, we are going to have how many, 500 women? 700 women who are going to be at our women's commission meeting talking about these issues on saturday, and so the women who are here in this room get to take this message out to them. and so thank you already very much. i'm looking right here because i know that's going to happen, right? excellent. and so -- maybe we have a chance for a couple of questions. yes, ma'am. >> hi. >> why don't you use the microphone right over here? thanks. >> good afternoon. my name is simone gregs and i'm the president and founder of all the love, which seeks to raise awareness about autism and the importance of early detection. in the african-american and hispanic communities, african- american children and hispanic children have the highest number of autism-related cases reported in the united states. so as you move forward in your agenda, i hope and pray that you don't forget about the mom who has a child with special needs, because most of the time -- all issues are important, but the mother who has the child with autism or disability is left out. they're discriminated against because the daycares can't accommodate. i'm sorry. they can't accommodate the children who have the disability. so i don't know what can be done. and i'm determined it not give up the fight. i don't mean to hog up the time but i just want to say that i had an opportunity to travel to new york this past weekend to go and support that mom who is missing the nonverbal autistic child, vanessa fontaine. so i can't in good conscience say i am not about all the love and i am not helping a person or a woman in need. so please keep that family in your prayers and please let me know if there's anything that i can do, because i'm committed to helping women and empowering women. thank you. [applause] >> thank you very much for sharing that. i mean, i think that part of what you hear as well is the importance of having, you know, when we say quality and affordable and accessible childcare, that has to mean for all children. and i think all of us here in this room have to embrace that notion so that we understand what it is we're fighting for. and in -- you know, in one case it may be the autistic child, but in another case it may be a child with other kinds of needs. it doesn't mean that those children, you know, can't learn and that that parent can't be supported, but we have to make sure that when we understand what we mean about affordable, accessible childcare that that's what it is. >> my daughter, her passion in life, she's a teacher of children with special needs. she lives in houston, texas. my son-in-law, married to another daughter, lives in arizona, he's a teacher for children of special needs. it amazes me they never burn out. it's a blessing. it really is. so our conversations, whether it's at the dinner table when we're together, on the phone when we're not, it's all about what are you doing with children. of course, the autism issue has expanded, the number of children. we always want to put them in the forefront because they fall into a couple categories. of course, childcare. but also affordable care act. and so no longer will these children, their pre-existing condition medical condition, be a barrier from receiving the health care they need. we have to have the race sensitivity, the special needs they have, and we have to respect them for who they are and what they can do, not judge them for what they cannot. and this is the spirit that we bring to that and thank you for your sharing your passion, your love on this subject. it's really important to our country. there are tens of millions of families that are affected this way. most of them feel that it's a blessing from god and this is their challenge in life. but it's to our country as well. our judgment on us will be how we meet that challenge. so thank you. [applause] >> we probably have time for maybe one or two more questions. yes, ma'am. >> thank you, again, congresswoman donna edwards and our leader, ms. pelosi. we know that our wonderful president had a global, if you will, town hall meeting where people logged in and it was an effort that allowed many groups, such as this, organized event to log in and have a discussion which included states across our wonderful united states. i was wondering if in terms of trying to move this forward and to allow others who may not have been present here today, obviously, to engage in this and allow this movement to grow across our wonderful united states. if we can look to see how we can put together a forum of events that would take place and include everyone throughout the united states, log in and we can all engage and we can move in a very powerful way forward. >> well, originally, we had a children's summit a few years ago and then tried to address some of the issues that sprang from that. hundreds of people coming to d.c. who had constituencies. in other words, they headed up an organization or this or that. then we talked affordable care act. some of the things that sprang from that. we were -- now after having around 20 of these around the country and more on the schedule, i just had one in sacramento on friday. i went home for a day to california to do that. we're talking about putting something together in d.c., but to do it, as you described, globally. now, because of the visibility of what we're doing, i don't mean to take credit for this, i'm sure they were thinking about it anyway, but the white house is going to be putting something together springing from some of this. if they take the lead, of course, that will be even better. it's a higher platform, a bigger soapbox than the rest. but we intend to be moving in a forward direction so that one of the reasons to do this is we want to change policy. but the other thing is to give people hope. most women out there struggling making the minimum wage have no idea that people are fighting for them in washington, d.c. they think no one is paying attention. they are trying to do two or three jobs. they're not reading the policy pages. when they do, they are not hearing people talk a whole lot this is central, core to the strength of our country. that's another reason to have it to be highly visible. we wanted to hear from people. it wasn't something we conceived, but it was something that came from the conversation. so that's why these first meetings have been so valuable to us about women making -- we really had not even heard about people taking out student loans to pay for their childcare. there was a whole different take on that for us. so that's important. you listen, you learn. we plan to do that. we'd like for the white house to do it and maybe we do both. we'll see how -- what the timing is on it. but thank you for that suggestion. but understand the role that congresswoman donna edwards plays in all of this. and i thank you for sending her to the congress. she's been pivotal on it. you know what, she hears an idea, she acts upon it. she -- [applause] you know she comes with great values, concerned about everyone in our community. you know that she has a vision about a fairer america which is really where people have opportunity, and that has been part of her life's work. you also know that she's smart. she knows these issues and she listens either confirm or -- not deny but enhance, whatever it is, and she has planned to get things done. i hesitate to even speak in front of her because i know pretty soon we'll have a list and a timetable and all the rest of what we're going to do about it. you know what, that's the leader, people are drawn to her. and they know donna has a plan, it's going to work, it's going to make a difference, it's going to make progress and that's, as i say, leadership. i want you to know the confidence -- i know you all respect her and hold her in high esteem here. i want you to know that esteem is shared in the congress of the united states, on both sides of the aisle. [applause] >> thank you, leader pelosi. you are just reminding me, as we close up and we'll take one more question, early on when we began to launch, we were using some of our allied organizations to begin to get the work out. we did google chats. we've done, you know, twitter conversations. things like that. and i think that what you shared with us, though, is an idea of even in our community here how we can take it more broadly and so i think, leader, you're right. even as you were talking, i'm ticking off ways in which we can actually act on the suggestion because i think it's a really good one. and that now that we have this room gathered here, each one of you knows another 20 people. we have thousands out there. and so in is a message that really can be spread, you know, broadly so we can't just talk about it but we actually get something done. >> and work with -- >> state and local officials to be able to do that. we'll be able to take one last question. >> thank you so much. speaker of the house, i guess i'm getting ahead of myself. thank you so much for the great work that you're doing congresswoman pelosi and congresswoman edwards. this coming saturday we are going to be -- the prince george's county commission for women along with prince george's community college will be hosting a forum to deal with all of the issues that you highlighted today. and we're excited about it. the goal of the forum, again, is to engage women in the legislative process and just connect with issues on education, safety and health. it's called women engaged, empowered, and educated. so we're excited about it. there are fliers out there on the table. please join us this coming saturday as we really do bring awareness to the issues that you guys have discussed. thank you so much. >> that is so wonderful. the combination of that interaction that you will have there and that we're talking about technologically, i was on the phone just a couple -- you'll know when it is when i tell you -- a week ago right before we took the vote and i was on with the a.f.g., and we had 26,000 people on the phone. so thank them for what they were doing to try to end the shutdown but that was our only east coast call. then we had the west coast call. tens of thousands of more people. the technology of today will enable us to get this mission accomplished when we talk about affordable, quality childcare. children learning, parents earning, these kids being ready and donna talks all the time about how different it is when they have a head start with preschool and going on. i mean, this is -- this is -- get back to mimi's point. this goes back to the competitiveness of the united states economy, the investment in education. investing reduces the deficit, grows our economy. so although we're doing it because it's the right thing to do for individual aspirations, it has an impact on our economy. when it's women -- the focus is women even more so. since we're in church, i am going to close by saying i was visiting my daughter in texas, in houston, she's a teacher of children of special needs. she was -- we were in church. houston is a conservative place. big, full packed house, catholic church, sunday morning, and the priest gave a beautiful sermon. he said what i want you to take from today, it's just not necessary for you to come here. it's not all right for you to come here and pray on sunday and leave here and prey on other people during the week. i said wow, come to our debates on food stamps, where they cut $40 million, and the rest of that, so there is a debate going on that we want fully engaged on to bring their threct and public service -- people trying to raise their families or reach their own aspirations. it goes back again, it goes back to the founders, life -- this is about the affordable care act, too. life, a healthy life, liberty, pursue your happiness in a way that is good for you. it's good for america. when women succeed, america succeeds. [applause] >> thank you very much. i'll just say, let's give our leader, nancy pelosi, a big round of applause. thank you very much, mimi, maureen, danelle, for being with us today, in her absence, senator mikulski, all of it is appreciated because it will take all of us together doing this. thank you so much. i'll put the microphone down. thank you. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> on the next "washington journal," we will be joined by representative joe barton of texas. we will also look at the nation 'sse and -- the nation intelligence gathering with representative adam schiff, a california democrat and a member of the intelligence committee. "washington journal" is lifeless easy -- is live on c-span everyday at 7:00 a.m. eastern. >> several live events to tell you about. a house energy and commerce subcommittee hold a hearing on how wired the medication network suspect sommers and businesses. that is on c-span2 at 10:30 a.m. eastern. also on c-span two at 2:00 p.m. eastern, eight hearing on young people and foster care who become involved in self -- and sex trafficing. the american3, enterprise inns is due to hold a four ohm on whether or not the new health-care exchanges promotes competition among insurers. that is at noon eastern. >> c-span -- we bring public affairs events from washington directly to you putting you in the room on congressional hearings, white house events, briefing, and confidence -- and compresses, and renew complete gavel-to-gavel coverage of the house. we are c-span, created by the cable tv industry 34 years ago and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. now, you can watch us in hd. housesday evening, the think of a bill naming the v8 medical center in florida for representative ouyang who died on friday. tributes came from both democrats and -- representative bill young, who died on friday. tributes came from both democrat and republican. this is about 40 minutes. >> the house has heard of the death of honorable bill c. committee of the speakers of the house together with such members of the senate as maybe joint the appointed to .ttend the funeral resolved that the sergeant at arms of the house be authorized and directed to take such steps as may be necessary for carrying out the provisions of these resolutions -- resolutions and be paid out of applicable accounts of the house. resolved that the clerk communicate these resolutions to the senate and transmit a copy thereof to the family of the deceased. resolved that when the house returns today that it were adjourns as a mark of respect to the deceased. >> without objection, the resolution is agreed to an motion to reconsider is laid on the table. does thepurpose gentleman of new york seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent that they may be considered to be the bill sponsor of hr 2248, a and reduce by marquis of matches markee of- by massachusetts. >> about objection, so ordered. pursuant to clause eight of role to suspend the rules on what they recorded vote or the eea's and a's are ordered. all on which the boat anchors objection under clause six of role 20. any record vote on the postponed notion will be taken later. >> to name the medical center in florida as the c.w. bill young department of veteran affairs medical center. a bill to name the department affairs medical center in florida at the c.w. bill young department of veterans affairs medical center. >> pursuant to the rule, the gentlemen from florida, esther miller, and the gentlewoman from florida, ms. brown, each will controlled way minutes. the germanecognizes from florida. >> messieurs fear, i ask unanimous consent that all five remarks and include any extraneous material that they have on hr 3302. mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. >> the gentleman is recognized. >> the way very much, mr. speaker. today is bittersweet as we mark both the passing of a chairmanonal stalwart, young and name the main pints medical center in his honor. mr. speaker, while the rock numbers themselves may seek volumes for his dedication to america, it is his personal that i admired the most. when i came to congress in 2001, bill young was one of the first members that welcomed me here, it was on this floor in this chamber that bill young introduced me to the members of this house the night i was thrown in -- sworn in. since then, i came to regard him not only as a mentor, not as a colleague, but a friend, a personal friend. the 13thyoung served district of florida and the people of the united states for over 42 years. he was the senior member of the florida original delegation and was the senior republican in both the house and in the senate. counting his ears and the florida legislature, bill young served over 50 years in public service and worked with eight presidents. remembered forst his devotion to america's defense and especially to the men and the women in the armed forces. having served in uniform for 15 years at the number of the national guard and reserves, bill was the go to guy on defense issues here in the house. he dedicated his legislative and personal energies to improve the quality of life or the men and the women who serve, and as a result, those who wear the uniform and face our foes have improved housing today, better care, increase pay, and the best equipment. members know bill best for his work as chairman of the house appropriations committee from , and he continued to serve as chairman of the subcommittee of defense until this time of his passing. but bill young was much more than a defense expert. been a leading advocate for increased medical research. bill worked to double medical research funding and funding to increase immunization rates for preschoolers, to improve public health programs, and to find cures for parkinson's and alzheimer's disease. just one example -- the c. w. bill young marrow donor recruitment and research program registry lists more than 9 million volunteer donors for patients with leukemia and other life-threatening diseases. that simple lists has provided the gift of life to more than 50,000 individuals. to completely describe the contributions of a man who served in this body for over 42 so withuld take hours, that, mr. speaker, on behalf of the entire florida delegation and all those who knew and served with him in this house and in the other body, i offer our most sincere condolences to his wife, beverly, and his sons rob, billy, and patrick. he was your husband, and he was your father. to us, bill was a friend. we will miss him dearly. mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. >> the gentlelady from florida is recognized her >> thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself as much time as i may consume. songs is letorite the work i've done speak for me. i rise today to pay tribute to chairman bill young, whose passing we mourn and whose dedication american serviceman is well known to floridians as well as to all who served in the house of representatives. taking care of our nation men and women in uniform was his passion. he often called them kids because he care for them as deeply as they were his family. chairman young was an officer and a gentleman. he served for nine years in the american national guard. during his decade in congress, he and his wife, beverly, regularly visited the combat troops in florida and here in bethesda. they have arrange travel for military family members of those who are having trouble. here in the house at the appropriations committee in any other way he could find, he was tireless in his work on behalf of serviceman, veterans, and their families. i worked with him when we were having to finish a new courthouse. this was just after the oklahoma city bombing, and all of the new security requirements that was added to protect the building and the people in them. the project was $9 million over came tobut the chairman the longest town hall meeting ever held here on the capitol. everyone had to say the chairman was a gentleman as always and wanted what was best for the people of florida regardless of party. this was the case also when it came to funding for research. chairman young knew how important i cutting-edge research was and making it a pro-ready to find the funding to help future generations of americans. every year, bill young was a keynote speaker at the memorial day program in bay pines he and theith gerald ford appropriations committee in 1976 to replace their original hospital building. at one point, he was a far as to personally show the president where the building was and how badly it was leaking. he was very proud of the new 1983.al, which opened in he was thrilled when they named the road encircling at the bill young wroad. the va medical center at they pines has bay services to complete, but in addition their service work character worse, dental service, extension care, and service for seniors along with programs that help homeless vets. in addition, the women's veterans health care program at bay pines focuses on wellness, education, preventative health care, disease management, and care for the emotional well- being of women veterans. today, we will go one step further and honor the man who center ata medical bay pines a reality. today, we take a step of naming the whole facility after bill young. it is a most appropriate tribute to name the center whose mission it is to coordinate the care for ed or men and wound women who serve their life. mr. speaker, as we say goodbye to our friend and colleague, chairman bill young, with this bill, we could honor his service in the way and he would appreciate most deeply. have his name associated daily and dreck late the highest level of care for our military veterans. committeethank chairman miller for bringing this forward, and i urge all of our parties to join me in supporting it. mr. speaker, [no audio] -- mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. >> they gentleman from florida is recognized her >> i would like to yield one minute to ms. ross leyden. >> thank you so much, and i'm so pleased of the gentleman from florida, chairman miller, has given me some time, and i'm so pleased to support his bill that he has gotten the entire florida delegation working in a bipartisan manner to honor this good man and warm friend, congressman bill young. bill was a true patriot and a tenacious public servant, dedicating his life to his constituents. as you heard from some of our previous speakers, his accomplishments are so varied and many, creating a national bone marrow registry of improving the quality of life for active duty personnel, our national guard, our reserves, veterans. dissecting thousands of jobs in mcgill airreserving force base, improving florida's environment. these are just some of bill consciousness. he was always willing to lend a helping hand to members of our entire state delegation with projects that were him portman in our local community. for example, he helps me to find the funds to dredge the miami river. an additionallady 30 seconds. >> thank you. to help the air force base after he was devastated by hurricane andrew, but more importantly, he was the consummate gentleman. he was principled, honest, maintaining civility with his colleagues, a trait that we no longer honor as we should. bill was an example for all of us here in congress. it was my privilege and my high honor to serve with him. what a great privilege. i think the gentleman for yielding me be time. >> time is expired. the gentleman from florida reserves. the gentlelady from florida is wrecking my spare >> to i feared i would like to yield three minutes to the gentleman from maryland, the with mr. oho yer. >> the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. >> thank you for yielding. bill young was my friend. bill young was a gentle man in every sense of the world. example for usan all. i will have the privilege of speaking on thursday at his request at his funeral. the bill and i served on the appropriations committee for 23 years together. i left when i became majority leader. young was, as i said, a gentle man, who cared about each and every individual in this house. more than that, he cared for each and every person who served in uniform in our armed forces. that, beverly displayed as congressman miller has said, on a weekly, daily basis. i am a democrat, bill was a republican. it is not make any difference. anwas an american, i was american, and we serve our country together. no one served a better than no young. -- than bill young. differencessee our as slight, and our common purpose as great. he always chose civility over partisanship. he was a skilled legislator on florida, the people of on behalf of his country. on behalf of the members of the armed forces, and the defense of this country. champion of veterans and their families, all of whom, where everybody lives, he viewed as his constituents. this bill to rename the va hospital in bay pines florida, which i am proud to cosponsor, is a fitting tribute to his devotion to our veterans and our troops. longerhe represented than any member of the house in this industry, he was originally from a coal mining town in pennsylvania. it was there he learned many lessons of the hardships of family and to learn that what they need would be in their reach. he never forgot that. he was a great member of this body. a very powerful member of this body. an extraordinary influential american. but to all of us, he was built. to all those he came in contact, he was dealt -- he was bill. he was a person who understood the needs, fears, aspirations, hopes of his people and the people of our country. ,y thoughts are with beverly was bill young's family, the people of florida's 13th district. this house has lost a great member. i yield back the balance of my time. >> the gentleman from florida is recognized. thank you, mr. speaker. i like to yield one minute to mr. mica. >> it is absolutely fitting that we take this step and name our veterans hospital and the west coast of florida after a great american, a patriot, a hero for our reverence, bill young. veterans, bill young. probably more than anyone in the house of representatives of congress, i have known bill young, i think longer. aides to the both first republic and congressman since the civil war, bill kremer. he was an aide before i was, but we met together and work together more than 40 years ago. only as ato nine not colleague but as a personal friend and political ally of a great human being, someone with -- who put his heart and soul into this position, who loved our servicemen and women, and his great legacy will be all he has done to honor their memory, and tonight we honor his memory with renaming bay pines veteran hospital for bill young, my friend. [no audio] i reserve the balance of my time. gentleman from florida is recognized. >> to record at this time, i would like to yield three minutes of the gentleman from georgia, mr. bishop. >> the gentleman is recognized -- is recognized. >> i rise to rename the bay pines veterans affairs metal center in florida -- medical center in florida to the c. w. bill young department veterans affairs medical center. i am honored to join over 200 of my hot -- house colleagues as an original cosponsor of this bipartisan legislation, a great tribute to one of our dearest colleagues. indeed, bill young will be forever known as one of the strongest supporters of our military and vellore and -- and veterans in the history of this congress. his unyielding support of our military and veterans is legendary. likewise, he was a true champion for his district and a fountain of knowledge about the chronicles of the u.s. house of representatives. bill young will be missed in washington as well as in florida. congressmanh late jack murtha, were not only great friends and mentors to me but their wives, beverly and joyce, were also friends of my wife, vivian. chairman murtha and chairman young were neither democrat nor republican when it came to our national defense. regardless of which was the chairman or ranking member of the subcommittee, the men and women of america's military would be taken care of. i am proud to have served as a member of the house appropriations subcommittee on defense under both of these great leaders. nationung's death, the has truly lost one of the few remaining statesman. our thoughts and prayers are with beverly and the entire family. congress and our nation have lost one of its greatest statesman. i have lost a dear friend and a mentor. inle we could use every word every language spoken by mankind, we will not have enough words combined to adequately think bill young for his service. but i am pleased to join my colleagues in passing this resolution to rename the bay pines medical center in florida the c. w. bill young department of veterans affairs medical center. it has been said that you make your living by what you get. you make your life by what you give. bill young gave so much to so many for so long. he will be greatly missed. i reserve the balance of my time. >> the gentleman yields back. the german from florida is recognized. >> i would announce tonight that we had 379 original cosponsors of this piece of legislation. i would like to now recognize the vice-chairman of the veterans affairs committee, the gentleman from florida whose young, forove mr. one minute. >> to why so much. -- thank you so much. 379 cosponsors. what a testament to her and what a wonderful man. mr. speaker, i rise today to support this legislation. over the past five decades, chairman young selflessly serve florida and the tampa bay area, leading many initiatives to promote economic growth, create jobs, of which his contributions to the military and veterans in particular are immeasurable. in the 1970's, the chairman played a significant role in theing critical funding for bay pines medical center, which allows the facilities to support almost 100,000, mr. speaker, 100,000 of our heroes in our area today. with this funding come up bay pines was able to increase the size of its campus, replace the hospital, and now offers a wiper varietyrvices -- a wide of services to these veterans in their backyard because of chairman young. chairman young has left behind a rich legacy in support of our heroes, especially those in the tampa bay area. by renaming this important facility in his honor, we will provide a lasting monument to her member a great friend. chairman bill young. thank you, and i yield back. >> i reserve the balance of our time. >> the judgment from florida reserves. the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. >> i would like to yield three what minutes to the gentlewoman from florida whose district went up to bill young's district. >> the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. the gentlewoman for you later time. i rise in strong support of designating bb pines be a medical center in -- the bay pines va medical center in pinellas the c. w. bill young medical center. i would like to thank congresswoman brown and all of our colleagues for honoring bill young with such a designation. i have been fortunate to serve alongside of bill young for the seven years that i have been here, seven out of the 43 years that mr. young served in the congress. we represented st. petersburg and the tampa bay area together. i know i speak for my predecessors jim davis and sam gibbons, who also passed last year, when i say that' congressman bill young was an outstanding partner for the state of florida. it is very appropriate that we honor bill young by naming the vaer finds va -- bay pines medical center after him. he was a fixture at the ceremonies every year, but more importantly, he was a fixture when there was no ceremony, when he would visit wounded soldiers in the hospital or at their homes, when there was no fanfare and he just determined that it was just his desire to ensure that the servicemembers and their families receive the care that they deserve and that they had earned. the air forces at base in tampa are state of the artist due to mr. young's extra attention, and i very little to the healthy right to me when the soldiers and civilians who work there were any. for example, in the past year, macas at our efforts, and dill means mobility when it comes to attention at the base. when it was not assisting former servicemembers and their families who qualify for medicare health services, he helped cut through the red tape. many also would point to his expensive air max -- earmarks in a variety of ways. our drinking water reservoir reservoir. young medical research at the university of south florida, programs that st. petersburg college, programs that eckerd college, and we are so proud that mr. young initiated the national bone marrow donor heogram at peace -- t children's hospital in st. petersburg. it was through mr. young's leadership that the bay pines va medical center was great. it is now the fourth-largest in the country. it serves veterans all across west central florida and employees of many talented caregivers. so it is a fitting tribute to this remarkable american to name medical centera in his honor, and i'm proud to cosponsor the resolution. modelssman young was a statesman. his kindness, sincerity, and dogged at for our nation's many women in uniform and veterans will be missed. the gentlelady's time is expired. >> i'm proud to yield one minute to the gentleman from florida. >> the gentleman is recognized. >> thank you, mr. speaker. you know, we literally could be here days speaking about the many accomplishments of chairman young, and those days would not suffice. i got a chance to work with him on the appropriations committee, and i will tell you that so many times i went to him for advice, for help. leon was one of those people you always went to -- bill young was one of those people you always went to when you needed help. he was such a wise man. as i said a little while ago, since we would never have enough time to talk about all his great compliments. and you have heard not only but his accomplices with the fact that he was an incredibly honorable, caring, wise, and statesman is a word that comes to mind. since my time is limited, i just want to echo something that i heard -- i am not quite sure who said it, but i read it to be a great man, you first have to be a good man. that thats anybody phrase reminds us of, it is bill young. i yield back. >> the gentleman's time is expired. the gentleman continues to reserve. the gentlewoman from florida is recognized or twice i would like to yield two minutes to the gentleman from texas, ms. jackson lee. >> the gentlewoman from texas is recognized. >> i would like to thank the gentlelady from florida, the ranking member of the subcommittee of veterans, ms. brown, and i would like to thank chairman miller. we were together, and thank you summary much. i wanted knowledge as well the ranking member of the appropriations committee, ms. lowing, thank you for allowing me to share this evening. the comments and the appreciation and respect i have for bill young. first of all, i would like to say what everybody else has had -- what a great american, what a great patriot. what a great public servant. and bill, may you rest in peace. bill is on the floor, congressman young, chairman young, was on the floor of the house just a few weeks before he passed, and i think that is important to note that he was working every single day to make america better. he loved soldiers and veterans, he loved their families, and it is highly appropriate for him to namedis name so honored, as a veterans hospital. i want to say that it is particularly important to note that congressman young was able to speak to kings and queens and generals and people of high places, but he was best when he was talking to everyday people, to the soldier said he loved. he came from humble beginnings starting with his single parent, his mother, losing his home early in life, living in a hunting camp. you would think that he would not be the generous person he he is really what america's all about -- the american dream. i've are member his commitment to our soldiers and his easy ability to work across the aisle. as someone who advocated for soldier suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, i want to let his family know how dedicated he was to resigning extra resources to the thousands upon thousands of soldiers who returned from iraq and afghanistan who needed extra help with posttraumatic stress disorder. he was very kind to those of us who are concerned about breast cancer and women in the u.s. military who may have experienced breast cancer. me at session,h in fact, the last two sections, to provide -- >> digitally. >> -- gentlelady. >> and he worked with them in last two sections -- two sessions, mr. speaker, and providing extra funding for ptsd, a center that is in houston, texas, but also dealing with additional research for triple negative breast cancer that might have an impact not only in the military population of women but also with women around the nation. bill is like that. , alwaysxtending sharing. he have a social place in my heart because my mother is from st. petersburg florida, but i was that he should have a special place in the hearts of all americans because if you ever want to see exemplified a grant and stately gentleman who had nothing in his heart but the love and respect and admiration for this nation, it was our dear friends, the honorable bill young. to his family, i say to them -- we love him, and we extend our deepest sympathies. youk you, my dear friend, have served well, and i hope that you will rest well. may god bless him and god bless his family. i yield back. quite the gentleman from florida is recognized or >> i now yield one minute to the gentleman from arkansas, mr. womack. >> the gentleman from arkansas is recognized. >> the gentleman's time is expired. --thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to join the chorus of people remembering our friend and the chairman of the defense subcommittee of appropriations, bill young. chairman young come as you know, spend five decades of his life in this chamber fighting for a better america for both his constituents and our country. as the dean of the republican conference, he was a leader and a counsel to colleagues young or old, republican or democrat. mr. speaker, i am the newest member of the defense subcommittee of appropriations. i was fortunate to receive his mentor ship. i learned from his fearless, unparalleled support of our troops and our veterans, and i admired his outspoken and unwavering commitment to what was in their best interest. mr. speaker, the a veteran myself of over 30 years, i was also a beneficiary of his incredible support of those who wear the uniform. while his presence will be youngr missed, the bill department of veterans affairs medical center will serve as a small and fitting reminder that this institution of our men and women in uniform, and america are undoubtedly better off because of bill young, and i'm proud to support it. i yield back. the gentleman's time is expired. >> city toledo time we have no? -- can you tell me how much time we have now? >> the gentlelady has 4.5 minutes, the gentleman has 10.5 minutes your >> thank you. i would like to yield three minutes to the gentlewoman from new york, mrs. louis. >> the gentlewoman from new york is recognized. today ineaker, i rise support of this bill. for more than 40 years, bill young served his district in this institution with integrity and honor after having served our country in the army national guard for nearly a decade. as chairman of the appropriations committee, his leadership, advocacy for our men and women in uniform and our veterans was unsurpassed. in a time when political culture too often devolves into hostility, and compromise is a dirty word, bill young was always a gentleman who consistently reached across the aisle. he would share with me his visits with his dear wife, toerly, to wounded warriors bring them comfort. how happy those visits made him . it was such a pleasure to serve with him. he will be truly missed. renaming this va facility in his memory is a tribute to his legacy. will be missed. rest in peace. god bless you, and god bless america. lady yelled back. the gentleman from florida is recognized. >> we have no more speakers requesting time and we are prepared to close its ms. brown is prepared. >> the gentlelady is recognized her >> thank you, mr. speaker. first of all, let me thank chairman miller for organizing this tribute to chairman young. in closing, you know, i often say when you are born, you get a birth certificate, and when you die, you are going to get a death certificate. that little dash in between is what you have done to make this a better place. i don't know anyone that has done more than chairman bill young. it has been my honor having the opportunity to serve with him, his leadership for the florida delegation. i mean, we have gone for some tough times, but i can tell you he has always been a gentleman. said onerst began, i let thevorite songs is work i've done speak for me. clearly he has done his work, and he has fought a good fight, and he has done his job. it is left up to us to continue his great work, and i yield back the balance of my time. >> the gentlelady yields back. is gentleman from florida recognized. >> mr. speaker, i want to thank all the members on both sides of the aisle for their kind words that they've set for our friend, bill young. i sincerely hope that the words give beverly, rob, bill young some measure of consolation. while we know a log or have bill's personal and wise counsel to go to, that beautiful veterans medical center will bear his name, and it will give witness to his many years of service to america and her defenders. i want to thank my good friend, ms. brown, for her help in bringing this bill to the floor and the over 375 cosponsors that we have brought on this piece of legislation. i respectfully ask all members to join us in supporting this piece of legislation, hr 3302, and i yield back the balance of my time. >> the gentleman yield back the balance of this time. the questions -- will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill hr 330? -- 3302? in the opinion of the chair, two thirds being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is pastored without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. >> several lives of ants to tell you about coming up today. the house energy and commerce subcommittee holding hearing on networks communication affect consumers and businesses. that is on c-span2 at 10:30 a.m. eastern. also on c-span2 at 2:00 p.m. eastern, a hearing on young people in foster care who have become involved in sex trafficking. witnesses include several members of congress who have introduced anti-sex trafficking legislation. and on c-span3, the american enterprise institute hold a forum on whether or not the new health-care exchanges promote competition among insurers. that is at noon eastern. >> in a few moments, today's headlines, plus your calls live on "washington journal." speeches in the house are scheduled for to walk eastern with legislative business at noon. today's agenda includes the water resources bill. and in 45 minutes, we are joined by republican representative joe barton of texas, a member of the energy and commerce committee, to discuss the committee's views on the affordable care act and the implementation with health insurance exchanges. and just after 8:30, we will look at the nation's intelligence gathering agencies, domestic and international surveillance, and the use of drones with representative adam schiff, a california democrat and member of the intelligence committee. host: house and senate lawmakers are back in washington this week, moving on from the government shutdown and debt ceiling debate for now, but the political fallout is rerelinquish rating with new polls showing republicans getting the brunt of the blame and democratic outraising their g.o.p. colleagues in fundraising. good morning, everyone. wednesday, october 23, 2013. we'll focus on the politics of the government shutdown this morning. will it impact your vote in 2014? republicans, 202-585-3881. democrats, 202-385-3880. independents, all others, 202-585-3882. accepted us a tweet,

Transcripts For CSPAN Washington This Week 20131027

met her future husband, who was sick. they got married 30 years later. reputation, resident truman nicknamed her the boss and she made public appearances. her -- hisld edited speeches and earned a salary in his staff office. a look at bess truman on "first " on c-span, c-span 3, as well as c-span radio. and offering of the special edition "first ladies of the united states of america." there are comments from noted historians. it is available for the discounted price of $12.95 plus shipping at c-span.org/products. there is also a special section "locum to the white house." -- "welcome to the white house." you can find out more at c- span.org/firstladies. c-span, we bring public affairs and events from washington directly to you, hitting you in the room at congressional hearings, andfings, conferences, complete gavel coverage of the u.s. house. all as a public service of private industry. c-span, created by the cable tv industry and funded by your local cable or satellite provider. you can watch us in hd. >> tonight on c-span comment or floridathe house representative bill young, who died last week, followed by a discussion on the future of afghanistan. later, using drone strikes and u.s. foreign policy. last week, the house took up a build to name the v.a. medical center in florida after the late representative will young, who died recently at the age of 82. it should be on the floor came from both democrats and republicans. this is about 40 minutes. >> to a purpose does that gentlewoman from florida wish to be recognize? >> i ask for immediate consideration. 384he house resolution resolve that the house here is a offound sorrow the death of honorable bill c.w. young, that a committee of the speakers of the house, together with such members of the senate, attend the funeral. resolved that the sergeant at arms of the house be authorized and directed to take such steps as may be necessary for carrying out the provisions of these resolutions and be paid out of applicable accounts of the house. resolved that the clerk communicate these resolutions to the senate and transmit a copy thereof to the family of the deceased. resolved that when the house adjouurns today that it were adjourns as a mark of respect to the deceased. >> without objection, the resolution is agreed to an motion to reconsider is laid on the table. for what purpose does the gentleman of new york seek recognition? >> i ask unanimous consent that they may be considered to be the first sponsor of hr 2248, a bill and reduce by marquis of matches who just -- by markee of massachusetts. >> without objection, so ordered. pursuant to clause eight of role 20, to suspend the rules on what they recorded vote or the yea's and nay's are ordered. all on which the boat anchors -- vote anchors objection under clause six of role 20. any record vote on the postponed notion will be taken later. what purpose does the gentleman from florida seek recognition? to name the department of veterans affairs medical center in florida as the c.w. bill young department of veteran affairs medical center. >> hr 3302, a bill to name the department affairs medical center in florida at the c.w. bill young department of veterans affairs medical center. >> pursuant to the rule, the gentlemen from florida, esther miller, and the gentlewoman from florida, ms. brown, each will controlled way minutes. the chair recognizes the german from florida. >> mr. speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members five remarks and include any extraneous material that they have on hr 3302. mr. speaker, i yield myself such time as i may consume. >> the gentleman is recognized. >> the way very much, mr. speaker. today is bittersweet as we mark both the passing of a congressional stalwart, chairman c.w. bill young and name the medical center in his honor. mr. speaker, while the rock numbers themselves may seek volumes for his dedication to america, it is his personal qualities that i admired the most. when i came to congress in 2001, bill young was one of the first members that welcomed me here, it was on this floor in this chamber that bill young introduced me to the members of this house the night i was sworn in. since then, i came to regard him not only as a mentor, not as a colleague, but a friend, a personal friend. chairman young served the 13th district of florida and the people of the united states for over 42 years. he was the senior member of the florida original delegation and was the senior republican in both the house and in the senate. counting his ears and the florida legislature, bill young served over 50 years in public service and worked with eight presidents. bill will be most remembered for his devotion to america's defense and especially to the men and the women in the armed forces. having served in uniform for 15 years at the number of the national guard and reserves, bill was the go to guy on defense issues here in the house. he dedicated his legislative and personal energies to improve the quality of life or the men and the women who serve, and as a result, those who wear the uniform and face our foes have improved housing today, better medicare care, increase pay, and the best equipment. members know bill best for his work as chairman of the house appropriations committee from 1999 to 2005, and he continued to serve as chairman of the subcommittee of defense until this time of his passing. but bill young was much more than a defense expert. he has also been a leading advocate for increased medical research. bill worked to double medical research funding and funding to increase immunization rates for preschoolers, to improve public health programs, and to find cures for parkinson's and alzheimer's disease. just one example -- the c. w. bill young marrow donor recruitment and research program registry lists more than 9 million volunteer donors for patients with leukemia and other life-threatening diseases. that simple lists has provided the gift of life to more than 50,000 individuals. to completely describe the contributions of a man who served in this body for over 42 years would take hours, so with that, mr. speaker, on behalf of the entire florida delegation and all those who knew and served with him in this house and in the other body, i offer our most sincere condolences to his wife, beverly, and his sons rob, billy, and patrick. he was your husband, and he was your father. to us, bill was a friend. we will miss him dearly. mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. >> the gentlelady from florida is recognized. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i yield myself as much time as i may consume. one of my favorite songs is let the work i've done speak for me. i rise today to pay tribute to chairman bill young, whose passing we mourn and whose dedication american serviceman is well known to floridians as well as to all who served in the house of representatives. taking care of our nation men and women in uniform was his passion. he often called them kids because he care for them as deeply as they were his family. chairman young was an officer and a gentleman. he served for nine years in the american national guard. during his decade in congress, he and his wife, beverly, regularly visited the combat troops in florida and here in bethesda. they have arrange travel for military family members of those who are having trouble. here in the house at the appropriations committee in any other way he could find, he was tireless in his work on behalf of serviceman, veterans, and their families. i worked with him when we were having to finish a new courthouse. this was just after the oklahoma city bombing, and all of the new security requirements that was added to protect the building and the people in them. the project was $9 million over budget, but the chairman came to the longest town hall meeting ever held here on the capitol. everyone had to say the chairman was a gentleman as always and wanted what was best for the people of florida regardless of party. this was the case also when it came to funding for research. chairman young knew how important cutting-edge research was and making it a pro-ready to find the funding to -- priority to find the funding to help future generations of americans. every year, bill young was a keynote speaker at the memorial day program in bay pines he worked with gerald ford and the appropriations committee in 1976 to replace their original hospital building. at one point, he was a far as to personally show the president where the building was and how badly it was leaking. he was very proud of the new hospital, which opened in 1983. he was thrilled when they named the road encircling at the bill young road. the va medical center at bay pines has services to complete, but in addition their service work for care givers, dental service, extension care, and service for seniors along with programs that help homeless vets. in addition, the women's veterans health care program at bay pines focuses on wellness, education, preventative health care, disease management, and care for the emotional well- being of women veterans. today, we will go one step further and honor the man who made the va medical center at bay pines a reality. today, we take a step of naming the whole facility after bill young. it is a most appropriate tribute to name the center whose mission it is to coordinate the care for wounded men and women who serve their life. mr. speaker, as we say goodbye to our friend and colleague, chairman bill young, with this bill, we could honor his service in the way and he would appreciate most deeply. have his name associated daily and dreck late the highest level of care for our military veterans. i want to thank committee chairman miller for bringing this forward, and i urge all of our parties to join me in supporting it. mr. speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. >> the gentleman from florida is recognized. >> i would like to yield one minute to ms. ross leyden. >> thank you so much, and i'm so pleased of the gentleman from florida, chairman miller, has given me some time, and i'm so pleased to support his bill that he has gotten the entire florida delegation working in a bipartisan manner to honor this good man and warm friend, congressman bill young. bill was a true patriot and a tenacious public servant, dedicating his life to his constituents. as you heard from some of our previous speakers, his accomplishments are so varied and many, creating a national bone marrow registry of improving the quality of life for active duty personnel, our national guard, our reserves, veterans. protecting thousands of jobs in his area, preserving mcgill air force base, improving florida's environment. these are just some of bill -- some of bill's many accomplishments. he was always willing to lend a helping hand to members of our entire state delegation with projects that were him portman in our local community. for example, he helps me to find the funds to dredge the miami river. >> i give the lady an additional 30 seconds. >> thank you. to help the air force base after he was devastated by hurricane andrew, but more importantly, he was the consummate gentleman. he was principled, honest, maintaining civility with his colleagues, a trait that we no longer honor as we should. bill was an example for all of us here in congress. it was my privilege and my high honor to serve with him. what a great privilege. i think the gentleman for yielding me be time. >> time is expired. the gentleman from florida reserves. the gentlelady from florida is recognized. >> i would like to yield three minutes to the gentleman from maryland, mr. hoyer. >> the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. >> thank you for yielding. bill young was my friend. bill young was a gentle man in every sense of the world. bill young was an example for us all. i will have the privilege of speaking on thursday at his request at his funeral. the bill and i served on the appropriations committee for 23 years together. i left when i became majority leader. bill young was, as i said, a gentle man, who cared about each and every individual in this house. more than that, he cared for each and every person who served in uniform in our armed forces. he and beverly displayed that, as congressman miller has said, on a weekly, daily basis. i am a democrat, bill was a republican. it is not make any difference. he was an american, i was an american, and we serve our country together. no one served a better than no young. -- than bill young. he chose to see our differences as slight, and our common purpose as great. he always chose civility over partisanship. he was a skilled legislator on behalf of the people of florida, on behalf of his country. on behalf of the members of the armed forces, and the defense of this country. he was a champion of veterans and their families, all of whom, where everybody lives, he viewed as his constituents. this bill to rename the va hospital in bay pines florida, which i am proud to cosponsor, is a fitting tribute to his devotion to our veterans and our troops. though he represented longer than any member of the house in this industry, he was originally from a coal mining town in pennsylvania. it was there he learned many lessons of the hardships of family and to learn that what they need would be in their reach. he never forgot that. he was a great member of this body. a very powerful member of this body. an extraordinary influential american. but to all of us, he was built. -- he was bill. to all those he came in contact, he was bill. he was a person who understood the needs, fears, aspirations, hopes of his people and the people of our country. my thoughts are with beverly, was bill young's family, the people of florida's 13th district. this house has lost a great member. i yield back the balance of my time. >> the gentleman from florida is recognized. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i like to yield one minute to mr. mica. >> it is absolutely fitting that we take this step and name our veterans hospital and the west coast of florida after a great american, a patriot, a hero for our reverence, bill young. -- for our veterans, bill young. probably more than anyone in the house of representatives of congress, i have known bill young, i think longer. he and i were both aides to the first republic and congressman since the civil war, bill kremer. he was an aide before i was, but we met together and work together more than 40 years ago. so i rise to nine not only as a colleague but as a personal friend and political ally of a great human being, someone with -- who put his heart and soul into this position, who loved our servicemen and women, and his great legacy will be all he has done to honor their memory, and tonight we honor his memory with renaming bay pines veteran hospital for bill young, my friend. i yield the balance of my time. >> the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. >> to record at this time, i would like to yield three minutes of the gentleman from georgia, mr. bishop. >> the gentleman is recognized -- is recognized. >> i rise to rename the bay pines veterans affairs metal center in florida -- medical center in florida to the c. w. bill young department veterans affairs medical center. i am honored to join over 200 of my house colleagues as an original cosponsor of this bipartisan legislation, a great tribute to one of our dearest colleagues. indeed, bill young will be forever known as one of the strongest supporters of our military and veterans in the history of this congress. his unyielding support of our military and veterans is legendary. likewise, he was a true champion for his district and a fountain of knowledge about the chronicles of the u.s. house of representatives. bill young will be missed in washington as well as in florida. he along with late congressman jack murtha, were not only great friends and mentors to me but their wives, beverly and joyce, were also friends of my wife, vivian. chairman murtha and chairman young were neither democrat nor republican when it came to our national defense. regardless of which was the chairman or ranking member of the subcommittee, the men and women of america's military would be taken care of. i am proud to have served as a member of the house appropriations subcommittee on defense under both of these great leaders. bill young's death, the nation has truly lost one of the few remaining statesman. our thoughts and prayers are with beverly and the entire family. congress and our nation have lost one of its greatest statesman. i have lost a dear friend and a mentor. while we could use every word in every language spoken by mankind, we will not have enough words combined to adequately think bill young for his service. but i am pleased to join my colleagues in passing this resolution to rename the bay pines medical center in florida the c. w. bill young department of veterans affairs medical center. it has been said that you make your living by what you get. you make your life by what you give. bill young gave so much to so many for so long. he will be greatly missed. i reserve the balance of my time. >> the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from florida is recognized. >> i would announce tonight that we had 379 original cosponsors of this piece of legislation. i would like to now recognize the vice-chairman of the veterans affairs committee, the gentleman from florida whose district above mr. young, for one minute. >> thank you so much. 379 cosponsors. what a testament to her and what a wonderful man. mr. speaker, i rise today to support this legislation. over the past five decades, chairman young selflessly serve florida and the tampa bay area, leading many initiatives to promote economic growth, create jobs, of which his contributions to the military and veterans in particular are immeasurable. in the 1970's, the chairman played a significant role in winning critical funding for the bay pines medical center, which allows the facilities to support almost 100,000, mr. speaker, 100,000 of our heroes in our area today. with this funding come up bay pines was able to increase the size of its campus, replace the hospital, and now offers a wiper 80 of services -- a wide variety of services to these veterans in their backyard because of chairman young. chairman young has left behind a rich legacy in support of our heroes, especially those in the tampa bay area. by renaming this important facility in his honor, we will provide a lasting monument to her member a great friend. chairman bill young. thank you, and i yield back. >> i reserve the balance of our time. >> the judgment from florida reserves. the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. >> i would like to yield three what minutes to the gentlewoman from florida whose district went up to bill young's district. >> the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. >> i thank the gentlewoman for you later time. i rise in strong support of designating bb pines be a medical center in -- the bay pines va medical center in pinellas the c. w. bill young medical center. i would like to thank congresswoman brown and all of our colleagues for honoring bill young with such a designation. i have been fortunate to serve alongside of bill young for the seven years that i have been here, seven out of the 43 years that mr. young served in the congress. we represented st. petersburg and the tampa bay area together. i know i speak for my predecessors jim davis and sam gibbons, who also passed last year, when i say that congressman bill young was an outstanding partner for the state of florida. it is very appropriate that we honor bill young by naming the bay pines va medical center after him. he was a fixture at the ceremonies every year, but more importantly, he was a fixture when there was no ceremony, when he would visit wounded soldiers in the hospital or at their homes, when there was no fanfare and he just determined that it was just his desire to ensure that the servicemembers and their families receive the care that they deserve and that they had earned. many facilities at the air force base in tampa are state of the artist due to mr. young's extra attention, and i very little to the healthy right to me when the soldiers and civilians who work there were any. for example, in the past year, he was at our efforts, and mac dill means mobility when it comes to attention at the base. when it was not assisting former servicemembers and their families who qualify for medicare health services, he helped cut through the red tape. many also would point to his expensive earmarks in a variety of ways. our drinking water reservoir is the bill young reservoir. medical research at the university of south florida, programs that st. petersburg college, programs that eckerd college, and we are so proud that mr. young initiated the national bone marrow donor program at the children's hospital in st. petersburg. it was through mr. young's leadership that the bay pines va medical center was great. it is now the fourth-largest in the country. it serves veterans all across west central florida and employees of many talented caregivers. so it is a fitting tribute to this remarkable american to name the the pines va medical center in his honor, and i'm proud to co-sponsor the resolution. congressman young was a model statesman. his kindness, sincerity, and for our nation's many women in uniform and veterans will be missed. >> the gentlelady's time is expired. >> i'm proud to yield one minute to the gentleman from florida. >> the gentleman is recognized. >> thank you, mr. speaker. you know, we literally could be here days speaking about the many accomplishments of chairman young, and those days would not suffice. i got a chance to work with him on the appropriations committee, and i will tell you that so many times i went to him for advice, for help. leon was one of those people you always went to -- bill young was one of those people you always went to when you needed help. he was such a wise man. as i said a little while ago, since we would never have enough time to talk about all his great compliments. and you have heard not only but his accomplices with the fact that he was an incredibly honorable, caring, wise, and statesman is a word that comes to mind. since my time is limited, i just want to echo something that i heard -- i am not quite sure who said it, but i read it to be a great man, you first have to be a good man. if there is anybody that that phrase reminds us of, it is bill young. i yield back. >> the gentleman's time is expired. the gentleman continues to reserve. the gentlewoman from florida is recognized or twice i would like to yield two minutes to the gentleman from texas, ms. jackson lee. >> the gentlewoman from texas is recognized. >> i would like to thank the gentlelady from florida, the ranking member of the subcommittee of veterans, ms. brown, and i would like to thank chairman miller. we were together, and thank you summary much. i wanted knowledge as well the ranking member of the appropriations committee, ms. lowing, thank you for allowing me to share this evening. the comments and the appreciation and respect i have for bill young. first of all, i would like to say what everybody else has had -- what a great american, what a great patriot. what a great public servant. and bill, may you rest in peace. bill is on the floor, congressman young, chairman young, was on the floor of the house just a few weeks before he passed, and i think that is important to note that he was working every single day to make america better. he loved soldiers and veterans, he loved their families, and it is highly appropriate for him to have his name so honored, named as a veterans hospital. i want to say that it is particularly important to note that congressman young was able to speak to kings and queens and generals and people of high places, but he was best when he was talking to everyday people, to the soldier said he loved. he came from humble beginnings starting with his single parent, his mother, losing his home early in life, living in a hunting camp. you would think that he would not be the generous person he is today, but he is really what america's all about -- the american dream. i've are member his commitment to our soldiers and his easy ability to work across the aisle. as someone who advocated for soldier suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, i want to let his family know how dedicated he was to resigning extra resources to the thousands upon thousands of soldiers who returned from iraq and afghanistan who needed extra help with posttraumatic stress disorder. he was very kind to those of us who are concerned about breast cancer and women in the u.s. military who may have experienced breast cancer. and working with me at session, in fact, the last two sections, to provide -- >> [inaudible] >> i thank the gentlelady. and he worked with them in last two sections -- two sessions, mr. speaker, and providing extra funding for ptsd, a center that is in houston, texas, but also dealing with additional research for triple negative breast cancer that might have an impact not only in the military population of women but also with women around the nation. bill is like that. always extending, always sharing. he has a special place in my heart because my mother is from st. petersburg florida, but i was that he should have a special place in the hearts of all americans because if you ever want to see exemplified a grant and stately gentleman who had nothing in his heart but the love and respect and admiration for this nation, it was our dear friends, the honorable bill young. to his family, i say to them -- we love him, and we extend our deepest sympathies. thank you, my dear friend, you have served well, and i hope that you will rest well. may god bless him and god bless his family. i yield back. >> the gentleman from florida is recognized. >> i now yield one minute to the gentleman from arkansas, mr. womack. >> the gentleman from arkansas is recognized. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to join the chorus of people remembering our friend and the chairman of the defense subcommittee of appropriations, bill young. chairman young come as you know, spend five decades of his life in this chamber fighting for a better america for both his constituents and our country. as the dean of the republican conference, he was a leader and a counsel to colleagues young or old, republican or democrat. mr. speaker, i am the newest member of the defense subcommittee of appropriations. i was fortunate to receive his mentor ship. i learned from his fearless, unparalleled support of our troops and our veterans, and i admired his outspoken and unwavering commitment to what was in their best interest. mr. speaker, a veteran myself of over 30 years, i was also a beneficiary of his incredible support of those who wear the uniform. while his presence will be forever missed, the bill young department of veterans affairs medical center will serve as a small and fitting reminder that this institution of our men and women in uniform, and america are undoubtedly better off because of bill young, and i'm proud to support it. i yield back. >> the gentleman's time is expired. >> city toledo time we have no? -- can you tell me how much time we have now? >> the gentlelady has 4.5 minutes, the gentleman has 10.5 minutes. >> thank you. i would like to yield three minutes to the gentlewoman from new york, mrs. louis. >> the gentlewoman from new york is recognized. >> mr. speaker, i rise today in support of this bill. for more than 40 years, bill young served his district in this institution with integrity and honor after having served our country in the army national guard for nearly a decade. as chairman of the appropriations committee, his leadership, advocacy for our men and women in uniform and our veterans was unsurpassed. in a time when political culture too often devolves into hostility, and compromise is a dirty word, bill young was always a gentleman who consistently reached across the aisle. he would share with me his visits with his dear wife, beverly, to wounded warriors to bring them comfort. how happy those visits made him and it was such a pleasure to serve with him. he will be truly missed. renaming this va facility in his memory is a tribute to his legacy. he will be missed. rest in peace. god bless you, and god bless america. >> the lady yields back. the gentleman from florida is recognized. >> we have no more speakers requesting time and we are prepared to close its ms. brown is prepared. >> the gentlelady is recognized her >> thank you, mr. speaker. recognized.elady is >> thank you, mr. speaker. first of all, let me thank chairman miller for organizing this tribute to chairman young. in closing, you know, i often say when you are born, you get a birth certificate, and when you die, you are going to get a death certificate. that little dash in between is what you have done to make this a better place. i don't know anyone that has done more than chairman bill young. it has been my honor having the opportunity to serve with him, his leadership for the florida delegation. i mean, we have gone for some tough times, but i can tell you he has always been a gentleman. when i first began, i said one of my favorite songs is let the work i've done speak for me. clearly he has done his work, and he has fought a good fight, and he has done his job. it is left up to us to continue his great work, and i yield back the balance of my time. >> the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from florida is recognized. >> mr. speaker, i want to thank all the members on both sides of the aisle for their kind words that they've set for our friend, bill young. i sincerely hope that the words give beverly, rob, bill young patrick some measure of consolation. while we know a log or have bill's personal and wise counsel to go to, that beautiful veterans medical center will bear his name, and it will give witness to his many years of service to america and her defenders. i want to thank my good friend, ms. brown, for her help in bringing this bill to the floor and the over 375 cosponsors that we have brought on this piece of legislation. i respectfully ask all members to join us in supporting this piece of legislation, hr 3302, and i yield back the balance of my time. >> the gentleman yield back the balance of this time. the question is -- will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill hr 3302? in the opinion of the chair, two thirds being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended, the bill is pastored without -- is passed without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute] voice house passed by a vote to name the v.a. center in florida after c.w. bill young. and now moves to the senate for consideration. you eventswe bring from washington directly to you, putting you in the room at congressional hearings, white house events, briefings and conferences, and offering to play coverage of the u.s. house. i'll as a public service of private industry, c-span, created by the tv industry and funded by your local cable or satellite providers. you can watch us in hd. next comment cbs news lara logan moderates a discussion on that afghanistan future as the year as down its commitment at year.d of the it is about an hour. >> welcome, everybody. i think you have had a long morning already. we are going to liven it up a little bit on the stage. if anyone still cares about afghanistan, i am assuming that is why you are here, and you are going to pay full attention to what these gentlemen have to say. it struck me when i was doing my research and preparation for today that the thing about the panel you have in front of you is that afghanistan is well represented. each of these individuals have a good knowledge of the situation on the ground there, especially historically. everyone has a depth of reporting in the region. what you also have is individuals who are very familiar and specialist in all the issues at stake. seth jones worked with special operations command. he has a very close view of the military strategy. counterterrorism is one of his fields of expertise. you also have a specialist on asia, and particularly india. he can bring in the india perspective. india has a significant role to play in afghanistan, and it has not been at the forefront of the u.s. strategy in that region over the last decade. of course, dr. kagan is best known for his work in iraq, although he and septra both been at rand corporation. what you have here today is an opportunity to remind ourselves what is at stake in afghanistan, and why the u.s. should care. the first question i was given was to ask what was at stake. but i want to put it in a much more pointed way. over the last couple years, the term war has become unpopular in washington. in fact, from the cia to the white house, it has been made very clear that we have been using the term war for war on terror, and it was probably a mistake. i am conscious of the fact that every other day, i get another casualty report from the battlefield in afghanistan, where u.s. soldiers are still dying. as far as they know, they are still fighting a war. you have an afghan election coming up. you have united states pulling out of afghanistan, to a large degree. degree. you have a nation that has completely lost interest in what is going on over there, and is not given a reason to care by its leaders. behind the stage, we picked our first victim. he is going to begin this conversation. i have interviewed him before. i can promise you he is not boring. >> that is a very kind introduction. i will be brief. and then we will all discuss various aspects. i think we will have a useful q&a portion of this. let me highlight a few things. if you look at polling data, it is probably worth being upfront about this. according to a july poll from 2013, conducted by the washington post and abc news, 20% of americans believe the war in afghanistan was worth fighting. not just is, but was worth fighting. that differs significantly from october of 2001, the month after the september 11 attacks, when 90% of americans, 97% of republicans and 85% of democrats, supported u.s. military action in afghanistan. over the following decade plus, we have seen a huge drop in support about whether we should have gone there in the first place. i am going to argue, somewhat controversially, that i still strongly will argue, as we peered on the future, that the u.s. has said it is going to stop combat operations by december 2014. it is still not clear what that means. it has not been an announcement of what force number is going to look like. i am going to argue that four major factors should give one pause in exiting afghanistan. the first is, you would not know it by political statements. but al qaeda's global leadership today is still located in this region. afghanistan, pakistan. it has been weakened by drone strikes. we have seen that this week with the human rights watch report. it has been weakened. but in my view, a civil war or a successful taliban, -- taliban- led insurgency, would almost certainly allow al qaeda back into afghanistan and pakistan. i was just there last month along the border. there is still a presence of terrorists, including al qaeda fighters. virtually everyone i spoke to involved in targeting them, people i have worked with in the past, have said they will be there after 2014. there is concern in some areas of the east. they may be there in larger numbers. the global leadership is still there. there are a number of sunni jihadist in the region that are not going away. some of them, including the taliban in pakistan, put an suv in times square. another conducted a major terrorist attack in mumbai. there is still a terrorism issue. the civil war or a successful taliban-led insurgency would deal a severe blow to human rights, including women's rights. the taliban would likely reverse progress in a country that has experienced an extraordinary improvement in the number of female business owners, government officials, primary, secondary, and university students. you would see a major backlash. third, burgeoning war in this region would likely increase instability with india, pakistan, iran, and russia, and i am going to add china to this. all have nuclear weapons or a nuclear program. there is a concern about regional instability, particularly between pakistan and india. i conclude by saying a u.s. exit from this country would likely foster a perception about u.s. reliability. when you look at al qaeda statements recently, i am going to leave you with one final thought. an american exit from afghanistan -- we have already seen this in jihadist networks. if it were to happen, it would likely be viewed and trumpeted by extremist groups, including al qaeda, as their most important victory since the departure of soviet forces from afghanistan in 1989. that is a very, very dangerous legacy we have to think very carefully about. we could talk about how to proceed later, but let me leave you with that thought. >> you were nodding your head at a few points there. i know the nuclear issue is one you have spent a lot of time on. can you take the floor? >> i would be happy to start by emphasizing a point seth just made. the american and international project in afghanistan over the last several years has been far more successful than people give us or the afghans credit for. remember, this is a country that went through several decades of violent war. every state and societal institution was essentially destroyed. when you look at afghanistan today, what you actually have is a constitutional regime of the kind that was simply impossible to succeed under the high tide of soviet occupation and the painful years after. you are now looking at a country that has the potential to build on a structure that, if improved and invested in, can actually provide more opportunities, including for those currently opposing the state. just recognizing that this has been a success, you can put together a structure where all you had before was an anarchy. >> americans do not care about that, because their leaders keep telling them the afghans are corrupt, dishonest, unreliable, that karzai is an unreliable partner. they are never given a reason to believe in anything the u.s. has achieved in afghanistan. >> i think the facts refute that on the face of it. development indicators in afghanistan today are better than they have been in a long time. corruption is endemic to all third world societies. afghanistan is by no means either particularly egregious or unique. the question is not whether one needs to bail out afghanistan because it has the maladies of an underdeveloped state, but whether we can persist consistently in afghanistan, not necessarily for the sake of afghanistan alone, but because it fundamentally comports with our own interests. those interests come back to the same interests we went into afghanistan to begin with in 2001. there is still an unresolved security problem in afghanistan that directly affects the well- being of the american people, and those of our allies. >> is there anyone on this panel who would disagree with that? >> not me, for sure. i think that as we think about afghanistan and why it matters, there is a tendency to treat it in isolation, to have this discussion as though the discussion we were having is whether we should put troops into afghanistan or not. when people say it is not worth it for us to be there, why should we go into afghanistan if we are not going into yemen, the problem is that you start from reality where you actually are. we have been in afghanistan. we have made an enormous effort in afghanistan. we have made an enormous amount of progress. there is a force getting after our enemies. this is taking it to al qaeda and allies. they are doing that increasingly. but they will not be ready in 2014 to take over that responsibility without american assistance, because they were not designed for that role, anymore than iraqi security forces were designed to be ready to take over responsibility. >> domestic political deadlines? >> it was a negotiated deadline with the iraqis that originated with us. in the case of afghanistan, it also originated with us, but has become an international deadline the afghans hold us to. but they are arbitrary deadlines, and were tied to the situation on the ground. i bring up iraq, recognizing how painful it topic it is. just because something is painful does not mean we should talk about whether it is important. talking about the path to zero, the model is iraq. iraq worked out pretty well. there is no reason we should not do that in afghanistan. iraq is a catastrophe, which has gone unreported. you have now a franchise that is back to the level of car bombing that it is conducting at the height of the surge in 2007, before the violence came down. that has all happened since american forces withdrew. the administration line is, we do not need to worry about it. it is in a place called iraq, and we do not believe in that. >> they fly the flag of al qaeda. they read statements in the name of al qaeda. >> they set up these islamic emirates, and they fly al qaeda flags and have foreign fighters. >> it is everything they have to say about who they are. >> and everything we know about who they are. what the administration is trying to do -- this is important. the administration is trying to define the threat from al qaeda down to be only those individuals who were either involved in the 9/11 attacks or part of the organization at the time. if you want to picture, in the white house somewhere, a poster that has the faces of all those people on it, with x through phases of people we have taken -- faces of people we have taken down, i think that is pretty much administration strategy. the problem is, the world has changed since 9/11, and al qaeda has, although in some cases it has not. >> you have people, like at guantánamo, who went from afghanistan to sudan, back to afghanistan. and he was handed back to the libyans, he was released by gaddafi, founded an organization in the east of libya, and we no longer call him al qaeda. he is one of the original al qaeda members. we want to now say he is a link or associated group. even having a pedigree that goes back 30, 40 years is not enough to get you called al qaeda today in washington. >> right. and we spend too much of our time thinking about who is currently planning to attack the united states. and not enough time thinking about what capabilities the global al qaeda movement has to attack the united states over the long-term, and what are we doing to address those capabilities, and the spread of those ideologies. >> i want to put two things to you. i think you and i were both there from the beginning. and we remember what people today in america seem to have forgotten, which is the promises the united states made when they came into afghanistan. to me, this is a very important point, because it speaks to integrity, honor, loyalty, and the nature of being a good ally. this was raised a little bit by you. the reason i find it so significant is that i think when we think of the united states and what it is meant to stand for and represent, it is very hard to look afghans in the eye today and say that we are honorable people who keep our word. we have lost interest in keeping our word. the afghans are not fooled. mean -- you know you -- you know when you have been betrayed or let down. that is the majority of how the afghans feel. in thiswe end up position where afghans feel betrayed and we feel that we wasted our efforts? betrayed and we feel like we wasted our efforts. >> the united states has promised much and it has given us -- given much. we did not talk about how well it was used and what the right strategies were. i will be the first one to say that big mistakes were made over that time. we look afghans in the eye in 2001 and said we will be committed to reducing, if not eliminating, terrorist groups operating from this region. we will stay until that objective is met. what we have now said is, sure, that objective has not been met, but we are still leaving anyway. the blame has largely been placed on the karzai government. i will also say very bluntly that there have been massive corruption problems within the government. as there have been in any government in south asia. there have been challenges building national security apparatus. there has been corruption problems in the u.s. dealing with contracts in afghanistan. i would say, first and foremost not just to the afghan people, can we look the american people in the eye and say we have reached a point in afghanistan where the american homeland is safe, for now, and in the foreseeable future? i think the evidence, as i have spoken to operators on the ground from the region last month, suggests no, not at all. there are foreign fighters continuing to come into camps in the region. there is still active plotting. the leader of this organization is still headquartered in this area. this organization is not bad by any means. >> or decimated. >> or decimated. it is not on the verge of strategic defeat, as some would argue. >> i will come back to you. >> on the contrary, if you look at any portrayal of where all qaeda is today globally, it has a much larger footprint and a much more advanced organization than it did in 2001. also than it did in 2009. it is absolutely unjustifiable to talk about this organization as having been decimated. i want to follow-up on the issue of betraying the afghan people. it is very important. not just a question of american honor. nor is it just a question of, will other people believe in us, which is also especially after the syria debacle extremely important. and egypt, and many other things. and probably iran. but it is very important for practical reasons. what is al qaeda? not just a terrorist organization. it sees itself as the vanguard of insurgency in the muslim world. >> political revolutionaries. >> what is our ideal end state? that the muslim world defeat this insurgency. not only rejected, but defeated. in order for that to happen, we need people in muslim countries to stand up and fight against al qaeda. they have done that in iraq and afghanistan. i know that seth and i have been on the ground and spoken with iraqis and afghans who say, are you going to be there with us when these guys come back and try to kill her families? the fact that in iraq has been the answer has been "heck no," and we are having the answer in afghanistan about going to zero, that undermines the best possible outcome we could have in this struggle, muslim people rising up against this hateful ideology on their own. >> seth, you and i both know, the former spy chief of afghanistan told me years ago when i asked him about that, he said to me, he said afghanistan is a small, poor third world nation. we do not have any illusion, and we do not think for one moment we can influence the united states. but i will tell you this. i have been fighting these people long before you came to my country. these mountains were here before you. these rivers were here. and they will continue to flow after you are gone. he said the leader of the taliban, these are truly forces of darkness, and they cannot engender a vision for this world. so i will be fighting, whether or not you are. i found that to be true then and true today. what i love about it is this articulate afghan man, he put it so perfectly. the afghans were fighting al qaeda long before the u.s. was in battle with al qaeda. now we look at the afghans and say, you are on your own. i spoke this morning to someone on the ground in kabul, and the sense i have from the john kerry-karzai negotiations is neither of them are particularly committed to this agreement they have come up with. that is not good for us -- afghanistan and is not good for the u.s. can you pick up on that? >> is very important to recognize one simple fact. we cannot afford to let all qaeda and jihadist islam more generally enjoy another victory. i think there are many jihadists in afghanistan and around the world who believe they successfully confronted the soviet union and defeated it. that empowered the movement. it has become extremely dangerous for us, not only in south asia, but worldwide. it cannot and of leaving the rich -- region in the situation where they control the same conclusion that they have defeated the united states as well. that is something we have -- ought to keep in mind as a strategic consequence of the way we manage the transition. another point i want to make, getting afghanistan right does not require overinvestment on the part of the united states. it is important to understand that what we need to do for success in afghanistan does not require us to bankrupt the united states. it does not require an open- ended uncontrolled commitment of resources. >> which is unpopular. >> which is unpopular, and which is unnecessary, given the gains made in the last several years. what it does require is a responsibility, a consistency of leadership, and a willingness to hold out support until afghanistan can make the transition to being independent. >> how long are you talking? >> it is extremely hard to make that judgment. but we have to be committed to the principle that as long as the afghans are willing to put their foot to the pedal the united states will stand with them in making this possible. this is the kind of discussion we ought to have. in the abstract, discussions about the numbers of troops, discussions about lines of assistance, these haven't been helpful. we need to assure afghans that if they make their contribution the united states will not be found wanting. you discover the numbers are actually not as overwhelming as people think. i hope in the discussion that follows we get a chance to explore this. >> seth, i will say some listening to this might think, these guys are crazy. this is a done deal. we are out of there. not even going to consider anything other than how fast they can get out. >> one, the decision has not been reached. december 2014 is in theory the end of combat operations. what does that mean? has not been decided. i am a little bleak on whether this administration is committed to keeping a necessary footprint in afghanistan. this brings up an issue that we might disagree on somewhat. which is, what should we be doing? what should the footprint look like? i will briefly say -- state, these situations are very difficult -- different, but when i look around the world of where the u.s. has been able to deploy forces, whether it has been in the philippines or a range of other countries. philippines after 9/11, with a somewhat light footprint supporting local forces, i am not convinced at this point in the struggle that those numbers have to be higher. i think the u.s. could remain in afghanistan with a legal counterterrorism footprint that is joint special operations command forces. u.s. special operation forces and other conventional forces to do basic training, advising, and assisting. enablers, airpower, conducting strikes in case there are, in case there is pressure by the taliban or groups on a city. predator reiber capability that can collect intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance. i look at numbers between eight and 12,000 u.s. forces -- 8000 and 12,000 u.s. forces that let afghans do the bulk of the fighting. the u.s. is largely in a supporting role, as being sufficient. >> the afghans are willing to do the bulk of the fighting. >> they have been. afghans have been taking multiples of the casualties american and international forces have been taking for quite some time. they are bleeding in this war, and they are continuing to recruit. i want to make one point about the numbers we talk about. we can come to different conclusions about feasibility. but there was a question, is this something we are prepared to say that if the requirement in afghanistan to achieve american vital national security interests is 15,000 troops, but the white house only wants to put 12,000 troops in their -- there, is the president prepared to say he is going to compromise vital american national interest over 2000 troops? is that a rational tabulation? are we prepared to say we will put in 12,370 five troops, but not one more? if we lose therefore, so be it? you ought to think that we have vital national security interest in afghanistan, in which case we would be well advised to put in the resources required to achieve that. or you do not, in which case we should not be there. >> what that reminds me of is general shin seki saying you need to hundred thousand troops to hold it before the iraq war. that was unpopular. it reminded me of general mcchrystal making a recommendation on numbers. before he made his recommendation -- political leaders seeking political advice from the military rather than pure military advice. even if you go back to afghan -- vietnam, that has always been the case, but no less troubling today. we have a question from the audience that was one of my favorite questions. it is something. i have been shot at from the pakistani side of the order. i pressed president bush are on this question. in one of -- president musharraf on this question. the cia said if you let them operate on pakistani soil they could find osama bin laden. i said, you are the president, you can say whatever you like. and where was osama bin laden found? who found him, by the way? i know this is something you spent a lot of time on. it is a question that i think is extremely important. president karzai annoyed a lot of americans saying, you're in the wrong villages, you should be across the border. what people still need to understand about what he is saying is you and i both know the problem lies in the safe havens in pakistan. you are not doing anything about it. so this question comes from peter with the american enterprise institute who says, american enemies have complete freedom of movement in pakistan. how can we defeat al qaeda without addressing the issue of pakistan? we cannot open up another front, we can't afford another war, but that suggest nothing can be done. what we have in pakistan is a failed policy. it was a failed policy under president bush, and it is failed policy under president obama. who wants to take that one? >> i can start. let me just start with what i consider to be the reality, which is the war in afghanistan, partly what we are talking about here, there are plenty of afghan taliban. 20 of individuals in afghanistan fighting. that said, it is worth noting very specifically that the command and control structures for every single insurgent group, every single major insurgent group, taliban, haqqani network, are all on the pakistan side of the border. that is where the command and control nodes are. the taliban's leadership structure sits in southern pakistan, in baluchistan. one level down in the organizational structure you have three regional committees. one is in cuetta, the the second, the third is an -- in waziristan. the borders are significant. when you look at the command- and-control nodes for al qaeda's global leadership, they also sit on the pakistan side. indeed, we spent a lot of time talking about afghanistan. there is an afghan dimension to it. it is important. but the command-and-control nodes for every major insurgent group sit on the other side. i will say that with both this administration and the last one there have been virtually no -- no major efforts, successful efforts, to target taliban leadership on the pakistan side of the border. there are no but -- drone strikes in baluchistan, virtually no individuals captured. that is where the taliban senior leadership is located. if we wanted to really get serious about this, and one has to take into consideration, why has little been done, and what are the implications of continuing to do virtually nothing about this? i can leave this to others to solve, but i want to get the threat and reality on the table. there is a very serious pakistan issue. >> can i add two points to that? i think we should at least entertain the hope that pakistan will recognize it is in its interest to do more than it has ever done before for a very simple reason. now that there is a realistic prospect the united states might leave, it could end up leaving behind and afghanistan that becomes a sanctuary for terrorists groups that are as much anti-pakistan as they are anti-afghanistan and anti-united dates. for the first time, pakistan has to confront a reality that afghanistan could begin to feed and funnel terrorist groups that undermine its own interest. we cannot count, however, on pakistan reaching the right conclusions from this. therefore, i think we need to rethink the character of our relationship with pakistan. to my mind, there is no alternative but to make the more contingent on pakistani behaviors that we have historically done. we can debate the details about how this contingency is to be expressed. but if you have a relationship with pakistan that in a fact conveys to them that no matter what late -- they do, american largesse will flow to pakistan on interrupted, you have created a situation they have no incentives to change. at the very least, the u.s. needs to look at itself and its own policies to think about how we might re-engagement pakistan. let me end by saying a word about india. india is deeply concerned that a premature american exit from afghanistan would end up leaving that country in exactly the way the indians pasted in the 1990's, essentially a sanctuary for terrorists groups that would move to attack indian interests. they have said they will do anything they can to prevent the current government of pakistan from being overthrown by force. we have to recognize realities. the indians do not have the capacity to substitute for the united states. they will look, like many allies, at the united states before they begin to show their hand. the surest way to lose all the regional allies who might be supportive of kabul is for the united states to run first to the exit. it comes back at the end of the day to consistency of policy and consistency of leadership. we should not be surprised to find afghanistan loses many of its regional partners. >> i have to say that i am less optimistic about pakistan than i am about afghanistan. i think there are things we can do in afghanistan to move it in the right direction. there are forces working in afghanistan moving in the right direction. pakistan is an enormously difficult problem. a country of 190 million people, approaching 100 nuclear weapons, and the largest concentration of terrorist groups anywhere in the world. it is clearly a problem. my question to be fully say, why are we in afghanistan when pakistan is the problem? you have to explain to me why tuition is helped by taking -- the situation is helped by taking a weekend -- weakened al qaeda taliban infrastructure in pakistan and making it wrong or by trying to persuade the pakistanis to fight the ramifications of that on their side. you cannot win this fight on either side of the line. the corollary is you cannot win in afghanistan if you lose in afghanistan. they are linked in that way. this is too often left out of our discussion entirely. one of the reasons to care about afghanistan is because of pakistan. >> and because of pakistan's nuclear weapons. >> yes. >> another question from the audience. he said, why blame our leaders when it is the media that constantly reports on corruption, failure programs, etc.? i would say we both their responsibility. without any question. the media is culpable. there is some good reporting on afghanistan. not nearly enough. there is some terrible reporting on afghanistan. what i would point out here to you is that the journalists writing about this stuff are getting calls from government officials who, by the way, love to leak things when they are the ones doing the leaking. they are very active in going after leakers when they do not like weeks because they -- leaks because they counteract the message. apparently the media does not seem to raise much of an objection about that. there is a lot lacking in the media. i take full responsibility for that. i would say to you, i did a piece about the return of al qaeda in afghanistan. the significance of what they were doing and how, for example, after bin laden was killed the announcement that came for his replacement came out of the defective headquarters of al qaeda in a -- afghanistan. the evidence is there, and not enough journalists are paying attention to it. that is definitely a factor. the people giving the message to our deliberately misleading our the leadership. that is what i hold them accountable for. when we look at the reality on the ground, it is different to the picture painted by the leadership. we all have a responsibility to be honest. not just the media and not just the politicians. policy is something we have not addressed well in the media. a failure of policy in afghanistan. a failure of policy in pakistan. when the afghans ask us what our policy is on pakistan, we do not even have one to tell them. certainly not one that makes any sense or gives them any confidence. we are very quick to hold the military accountable, as we should be. but no one seems to be as quick to hold the politicians accountable for their failures. the next question comes from the university of wisconsin. i think this is a fair point. with all the signs of progress cited by the panel, what percent of the afghan population is now part of a functioning modern state? we know there is no percentage. but that is not necessarily the benchmark of progress. i do remember an afghanistan the did not have one pane of glass from the length and breadth of the country. kabul today is pretty dramatically different today. >> the objective is not to establish a modern functional state in afghanistan. and that has not been the objective for quite a number of years. i had the privilege of serving on general mcchrystal pasha initial assessment review. we had a long conversation about what exactly the objectives should be. concluded, and this is what i believe the white house also believed and believes, that the objective is a state in afghanistan regarded as legitimately -- sufficiently legitimate by its people that the nature of the state is not fueling an active insurgency against it. the question is not whether kabul is going to look like washington or topeka. the question is whether the afghan people are going to accept the legitimacy of the government the way most people in most countries around the world and all countries that do not have insurgencies do. that is a different standard in different parts of afghanistan, as you know. when you go into valleys, they do not want any government. when you try to bring government to them you have a big problem. in urban centers, it is a very different situation. i think we have seen some progress. the corruption is important. the corruption has been a driver of instability for a variety of reasons and will continue to be. but we are looking for something that will satisfy the afghan people. that is what we have been driving toward, and as with the progress has been moving toward even though we do not recognize it as a kind of a monomeric -- most americans would want to live in. >> several of us have spent time over the years in afghanistan. how many types of states there are within it. there is a formal state apparatus that is based out of kabul that has ministries. the when you get in rural areas, you get an informal apparatus. this is a very different kind of structure. this is not the balkans. this is not germany after world war ii, or japan after world war ii. the state system is very different here. there is a limited central government and you get into southern afghanistan, for example, you have tribes, sub- tribes, clans, powerbrokers. the interesting thing is, over the first couple years of the struggle, how many resources the u.s. tried to push through the state system, including building a court apparatus and judges and things we think are near and dear to us. when you get into rural areas, justice is handed down through informal apparatus. leaders in a village will adjudicate disputes informally. this is not the united states. this is not western-style state apparatus. part of the issue, i think we need to be a little careful about what we are trying to construct and what we should construct. i strongly second fred's point. one of the things that has struck me about the media , and lara, you have been a major exception, is how little people have look at the other side of the struggle. this is not just about focusing on what is going on within the u.s. within the afghan government. there are problems, like in any war. but look at the taliban side, they have had to establish and accountability commission because there has been corruption within the taliban. they are involved in the drug trade. they are involved in trafficking, in targeted assassination. roughly 75% to 80% of civilians killed are done by the insurgent side. one of the disservice is, i think, to the coverage of this war from the media perspective is when issues of corruption, the focus is on one side. the reality is this is a struggle within and among multiple different organizations that, and there are as many, if not more, challenges within the insurgency as there are within the government. everything from corruption to the inability of taliban forces to read. when people show me literacy rates among afghan forces i say, well, it is interesting to compare that, they are better than they are the insurgent side. you want to talk about comparison. that has been a bit of a disservice in the media coverage of the war. >> ashley -- >> i would make the point that afghanistan has always been a decentralized state. any mental model that things of afghanistan as a unity central state is using the wrong benchmark. the benchmark we ought to be using is a very simple one. for the average afghan, is security increased in the everyday circumstance of their lives? has there been a mechanism for dispute resolution and the administration of justice? are ordinary afghans able to conduct their economic activities without undue interference from the state? these are the metrics by which to judge progress. i think as both fred and seth said, the picture varies considerably depending on which part of afghanistan you go to. our objective has to make certain that the portions of afghanistan that have not established progress actually begin to grow and develop on the basis of the example set by their most vessel neighbors -- successful neighbors. >> this last question, i would like everybody to answer it. i'm going to take a question from the audience and add to it myself. we have here, i'm going to mess up your last name, from the christian science monitor. if the qaeda leadership is along the afghan-pack as -- afghan- pakistan border, does that mean the u.s. has lost this war? if we have not won the war in 12 years, what more can u.s. troops the cobblers? what i would like to add to that, there is a narrative that is pushed by the pro-taliban faction and by other people in washington that says the taliban does not have any beef with america beyond the fact you are in their backyard. there is no ideology. go home and we are done, it is over. those are the people who believe that the taliban and al qaeda's relationship can be questioned and pulled apart. i would put to that that of all the people from the taliban side who have been persuaded to give up arms, not a single one of them has ever publicly announce renounced al qaeda. not a single taliban leader, not the haqqanis, who have more than 30,000 fighters. what the military could achieve beyond 2013, 2014, 2015 -- why we should care, what are the consequences of coming home, why does it matter? >> you want me to take a crack at that? i think the most important thing we can do post-2014 is to help the afghan state take greater responsibility for the security of its own country. in practical terms, what that means our --are three things. first, standby afghanistan so it can negotiate with regional neighbors from some position of strength as opposed to simply becoming a victim to its more powerful neighbors. two, we have to help the afghan state overcome what will be a severe contraction in national gnp after u.s. and international forces cease to engage in security operations post-2014. nothing works if you do not have an economy that is at least moderately successful. anticipating the contraction in afghan gdp and working to mitigate it, at least until afghanistan to step -- stand on its feet, is the second important objective. the third is helping the ansf, the afghan national security forces, essentially succeed in the fight which is increasingly their own. the role we can play is not for the united rates and the international community to take the lead in funding. the afghans want to do that, are willing to do that. what we need to do is simply provide them the tools so that they can finish the job. >> let me just add to a couple of ashley's comments. i think one way to look at this is if you look at the last major ideological struggle that the u.s. was engaged in against the soviet union during the cold war, i do not want to draw too many parallels here, but it was a struggle in part against marxism and leninism. not just on the battlefield. if you were to ask yourself in 19 exceed, we -- 1960, we have been at this for 15 years after yalta. haven't we been doing this long enough, struggling in africa, in latin america, in eastern europe? if we sold out the opposition groups in poland in the 1960's and 1970's? the struggles not ashley and until the late 1980's -- not actually and -- end into the late 1980's and early 1990's, when groups rose up against an ideology the population just could not live with. to shift gears here, afghanistan is a good example of this. we are in a struggle with an oppressive ideology. the taliban's vision of afghanistan, in syria, they are different in some ways. in afghanistan, the groups trying to win this one from the opposition side are trying to establish an extreme version of islam. an emirate where the most important ministry is virtue and vice. it is an ideological struggle. i would just say the people who want to give up this early on, remember this one is a generational struggle. not one that is going to be measured in months or years. i would view afghanistan in a much broader sense. when you look at what is happening in north africa, look what is happening in the middle east, this is a struggle that is happening on multiple continents. the leadership, though, sits in this particular region. which is why i'm going to end my comments here by noting that this is what makes this particular theater so critically important. the leadership structure sits here. >> i second all of those comments. it is quite true that mullah omar never swore allegiance to osama bin laden. because it was the other way around. osama bin laden swore allegiance to mullah omar. as we talk about disaggregating al qaeda and the taliban, it is important to understand they have been aggregated for two decades. there have been arguments about whether to break with al qaeda. it was a big argument in the 1990's. mullah omar was on one side, guess who won? there was a fight over to hand over of some bin laden -- osama bin laden. these are groups that have been fighting together and for each other for a long time. i know there are people who think they can see into mullah omar's soul and believe if only they could talk to him we could work this puppy out. but there is no basis in reality for that view. as we talked about, i think seth's analogy is a very good one. the tide of war is receding. the tide of war is not receding. are any measure, the amount of war in the world today is higher than it was when barack obama took this. it is higher than it was when george bush took office, also. the tide of war is not receding. the tide of american desire to be involved in wars receding. now i have to go back to my roots as a sovietologist. we may be tired of war, but war is not tired of us. we can decide that we are going to stop fighting al qaeda, but al qaeda has not decided it is going to stop trying to attack us. every day, thousands of al qaeda fighters and leaders wake up and ask themselves what they can do that day to improve their ability to kill americans. as long as that is true, we do have a dog in this fight. we can argue about strategies and we can argue about whether we should do this or that or how many troops, but we do not receive my understanding that that is the world -- -- as it actually is, we are doomed from the standpoint of developing a decent strategy. lastly, i want to say that we have been talking about two different things that are treated as different but should not be. what is the humanitarian issue in afghanistan and promises to the afghan people. the question of what will happen to afghan women, and so forth. the other is our security interest. those are actually in my view not easily separable. because the united states is not, or should not be, and a moral actor in the world. -- an amoral actor in the world. we should not be a country that does not care if millions of people who we promised safety and security and a certain kind of life are suddenly victimized, killed, and treated horribly. we should care about that. the reflection of the possibility of that kind of care, i think, is in the formation of a new group that was rolled out yesterday that i had the pleasure to be a part of, the alliance in support of the afghan people. which has members from the spectrum, from me to gloria steinem. and both sides are represented in this because it is a recognition that the united states has obligations to these people for their security, and obligations of them also for the ethical nature and morality of our international engagement. we really cannot lose sight of either of those. >> thank you. i would close by saying that what you have here before you is a group of people whose interest in afghanistan and the consequences of this transcend politics. it is not about who is in power at any time. its interest is born of a long- term involvement in the region and what each of us have seen and learned from the afghans, pakistanis, being on the ground. the worst part about all of this is that -- the terrible sense of d?j? vu from charlie wilson's war. what i would leave you with today is that i asked the panelists not to sugarcoat it and not to give political answers. i think you have to respect their courage and integrity you have seen today. the answers you have been given to they are truly what these individuals believe. they have the experience and knowledge in the region for their voices to count. so, what is left to us is to hold our government to account. thank you very much. thanks for listening. thanks for coming. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] >> on the next "washington journal" opinion and politics after the government shutdown. you -- follow that with a preview of the negotiations on the upcoming farm bill with alan bjerga. in the future of afghanistan and the united states as united states gets ready to withdraw from afghanistan. at 7 a.m. eastern on c- span. on sunday, c-span profiles to lawmakers -- west virginia senator joe manchin, talking about growing up in farmington, and his family's connection with the kennedy campaign. rodgers, mcmorris discussing her role within the house republican leadership. this is a preview of mansion, and then rogers. this through the eyes of what i saw in the eyes byrd and his reverence for this great institution. i would have thought when the chips were down, it was always second,first, state politics, third. that is not what i see. i see 100 good people in the senate. i don't have anybody i don't like, i like everybody and try to get along with everybody. -- someestion them motives and reasons, the purpose of the service. and iack to john kennedy think about that speech on television, when i was 13 years old. ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country. the constitution says, we the people. youhave to take ownership, have to have routine maintenance, and now we have a country where people say, ask not what your country did to you, but what you can do to it. >> i don't believe the republican party needs to change what it stands for, the principles and values that we believe in as republicans. that have been long-standing. but i do believe the republicans have to do a better job of positions our policy with how people live in the 21st century. and also using 21st century communication tools that, the days of just issuing a press release or raising lots of money, or doing television ads, connecting that much. the 2008 election when president obama was able to create this 13 million12 or people, this was a wake-up call to me. >> you can watch it does -- both of those profiles here on c- span. >> represented adam smith spoke on drone strikes and also answered questions from the audience. he spoke for about one hour. >> thank you very much, it is great to be here. i really appreciate the relationship with csis. my desire to learn more about issues -- nobody has been more helpful in that then john. the level of expertise here at csis is very helpful. we are trying to puzzle through some difficult and challenging national security issues. i want to talk about how we continue to proceed with our fight against al qaeda and their ideology. during my time in congress, nothing has changed our policy more than 9/11. it was a major shift, we have been reacting to that event ever since. we created the department of homeland security, the national director of intelligence, invaded afghanistan and iraq. how do we fight this war effectively? it is unlike any other battle that we have ever fought. what i want to do this morning is set the frame for where we are at and where we should go. more than a dozen years after the event, how are we doing, what are the challenges, how do we move forward. the central challenge that we have is we are still trying to accomplish two things. it is still a war, people forget that. al qaeda declared war on us in 1996, they have not changed their mind. the only thing stopping them from attacking us is our ability to stop them. that has not changed. the organization, the groups have metastasized and changed, we have grown, in some way stronger than others. in national security in the u.s., the dod, cia, the primary thing you are thinking about is whether or not there's going to be a terrorist attack and what you could do that day to prevent it. that is the dominating aspect of our national security policy. for all of the challenges we have with russia, china, the asia-pacific, latin america, the number one thing on our minds is protecting this country. the number one threat to that is terrorism and al qaeda and their offshoots. we have to fight that war, one of the best ways is to get them before they get us. that involves military action. the second thing we have been trying to accomplish -- president bush and obama have tried to figure out how to do this -- to win the ideological struggle. to stop people in the muslim world from wanting to join organizations like al qaeda. to bring greater stability and move towards a more moderate form of government in these countries. the great challenge is that number one conflicts with number two. we see that in the drone campaign. undeniably, it has been effective. the ability of al qaeda central leadership to plot attacks has been degraded, one of the biggest things is we have effectively targeted and disrupted their leadership. when your top terrorists are spending all of their time every day worrying about how they can stay alive, they cannot plot as effectively. that has worked. the other thing that is true is that the military campaign has made it more difficult to win the ideological struggle. to convince the muslim world and others to get away from al qaeda. the one narrative that al qaeda has is that they are the one group of people standing up against western aggression. standing up against the west's attempts to influence and attack the muslim world. to the extent that they are in the middle of the war, that feeds into that narrative. that is not an argument for not doing it. it is an argument for figuring out how to balance that. in any war, if you choose to attack, you will anger your enemy. you are trying to prevent them from attacking you. president obama -- when he got into office, had a very specific vision for how to do that. we are going to reset relationships. the goal was -- the notion was the world was not fond of the bush administration. they viewed us as trying to force our will on the rest of the world. you have a whole bunch of issues, you're going to change all that and work with the rest of the world. deliver a different message so that we can build broader support. it is fair to say, five years into it, that that has not worked. at this point, i have not seen any polling data, if you were to poll people in europe, the muslim world, elsewhere -- the level of support to the u.s. is probably about back to where it was during the bush administration. that is not the be-all end-all, we are not trying to protect our national security and thinking the number one goal is for everyone to like us. it is an important element. one of the more troubling things is not just the lack of support that we see from some of our allies, but domestically, some of the central underpinnings of our campaign to contain al qaeda and win the ideological war are not a supported in this country as we would like. people have long wanted us out of afghanistan. there is concern about drone attacks, the nsa revelations have undermined confidence. there are a number of different reasons. i will point out the reasons why we have not had as much success as we had hoped in terms of building broad support for our campaign. and then second, what we should do about it. the reasons why are clear, number one is the drone strikes. it has gotten a fair amount of attention. a number of civilian casualties, the justification for those attacks, the world is focused on this. i do believe that drones are getting an unfair portion of blame. a drone is a weapon of war. i don't feel that the world would feel any better if we were launching cruise missiles. i think there is too much emphasis how this has changed things, a drone is more dangerous than sending in a seal team. if anything, drones are more surgical. they are not the perfect instrument that they are sometimes described to be. we should be clear, as secretary gates was yesterday, it is war. in war, civilians suffer. we should not pretend that we have come up with some way to prevent that. we want to minimize that, but there will be innocent to suffer. the drones are one of the biggest reasons. another big reason is the fact that guantanamo is still open. for all of the efforts we have made to change interrogation, emphasizing normal civilian constitutional trials, the fact that guantanamo is still open, that is all the rest of the world needs to know. all the other efforts get swept under the rug, we still have over 160 people in prison, guantanamo. the other challenge is the arab spring. thomas friedman said it best, no president has faced as chaotic a situation in the middle east as president obama. whether you are talking about egypt, bahrain, libya, syria. it is a chaotic situation. we have seen the difficulties in developing our relationships with allies like saudi arabia and israel. everyone wants something different. we have broad goals, but goals conflict. we want democratic governments that represent the people. we want stability, we want to stop the rise of extremism. but what do you do when you have a situation like egypt? mubarak brought stability, he did not bring democracy and freedom. no matter which way you choose, you are contradicting one of your stated goals. that is one of the major problems we have with saudi arabia. when the democratically elected government was removed, that is contrary to our goal. but the democratic government that was removed was not terribly democratic. how do you strike that balance? that has presented a challenge. i will also mention the fact that the federal government here in the u.s. has been unable to function, unable to pass budgets. i could go off at length on this topic. i will just say two things. the nihilism of the tea party, the basic notion that all they want to do is hurt the federal government -- and they are incredibly indiscriminate about how they do it -- is a real problem. one of the things the federal government does is it provides for our national security. if you are hurting our federal government, you are hurting our ability to do national security. i cannot imagine what it is like to work at the pentagon right now. i was talking with people yesterday -- it is great, the government is open. that is how low a bar we have set. [laughter] with the cr, sequestration, every four or five months the threat of a government shutdown, there is no way we can function effectively. whatever you may think of how large the federal government should be, it is unacceptable to set up a situation where it cannot function. make no mistake, that hurts us and our ability to work with the rest of the world. they do not see us as as credible a force. those are some of the challenges that have made it more difficult to as effectively advance our policy. a couple quick things and then i will take your questions. the things that we need to change -- there is a need for greater transparency of our drone strikes. we need to make clear why we are targeting people. there are a bunch of different groups, that is the thing about al qaeda. some groups are formally affiliated, some groups have adopted the ideology. we need to make clear that our number one goal is to stop those groups that are plotting and planning attacks against our homeland and against western interests. there are a lot of other groups that we do not like, boko haram in nigeria -- they are not plotting attacks against us. it is self-defense if we are going after groups that are plotting attacks against us. it changes -- it was pakistan for a long time. and then the underwear bomber -- some attacks were coming out of yemen and we had to respond. i make no apology for the fact that we targeted anwar al- awlaki. he was targeting us. unfortunately, far too often, we do not make it clear why we are doing this. i understand the need for secrecy. we do not have to reveal all of it. whenever we do a targeted strike, whether it is a drone or sending in special operations, we need to at least briefly explain why. i realize that some of these strikes are on the title 50 side, they are secret. we can reveal what we want to reveal. we do have to reveal enough to say this is why we hit this person. it was clearly self-defense. i also think it is good at the president is moving us towards getting more into the dod title 10 side. also -- guantanamo is a big part of this. there is no reason we cannot close that prison. it would be a step in the right direction. the third thing is something that we have done, we need to do it more broadly -- build partner capacity. instead of the u.s. showing up and firing the shots, let's work with local allies to stop an insurgency before it gets started. number two, make sure it is the local forces that are enforcing the law. we have done this effectively in the philippines. we have had a presence there for a while. they are battling insurgents of a variety of stripes down there. it has been by and large effective, there has been an uptick in the last couple of months. no u.s. person has fired a shot, but we have been integral to success. the same is true in the horn of africa. we have worked with ethiopia, kenya, burundi, so it is a local fight, not something being dictated by the u.s. that would help, building up partner capacity. yes, let us get to the point where we actually fund our government on a regular basis. i could get into that but i will leave it at that. the last thing i will say is -- we need to better manage expectations as to what the u.s. can do. a large part of our problem with allies like israel and saudi arabia is that they expect that whatever problems it is, we should show up and solve it. there has always been a far greater gap between expectations and abilities, that gap is growing. the rest of the world is becoming more powerful. the u.s. is not as dominant as it used to be. the expectation that the u.s. can show up and fix it is a huge problem. during one of the riots in cairo, the interviewed a young man -- a movie played and got the muslim world all upset. the young man said "this would not be on the internet if president obama did not want it there." we need to make it clear that we are not part of the problem. that is the problem with syria, the u.s. stepped up and said it is an international norm, but somehow it is the sole responsibility of the u.s. to enforce it. that reinforces the message that that reinforces the message that if something bad happens in the world, it is because the u.s. has decided to allow it. that we could decide otherwise. that is not true. when i was visiting a refugee camp in northern jordan, i was shocked at the number of refugees who said why don't you stop this. assad must be stopped, why isn't the u.s. doing it? we really are not capable of doing it. we cannot fix every problem in the world. the obama administration understands that. they have pushed to continue for a more cooperative approach. let us work with our allies to solve these problems instead of assuming that the u.s. has to show up and fix it. that is why in afghanistan --

Transcripts For CSPAN Washington This Week 20131027

variety of services to these veterans in their backyard because of chairman young. chairman young has left behind a rich legacy in support of our heroes, especially those in the tampa bay area. by renaming this important facility in his honor, we will provide a lasting monument to her member a great friend. chairman bill young. thank you, and i yield back. >> i reserve the balance of our time. >> the judgment from florida reserves. the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. >> i would like to yield three what minutes to the gentlewoman from florida whose district went up to bill young's district. >> the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. >> i thank the gentlewoman for yielding the time. i rise in strong support of designating the bay pines va medical center in pinellas the c. w. bill young medical center. i would like to thank congresswoman brown and all of our colleagues for honoring bill young with such a designation. i have been fortunate to serve alongside of bill young for the seven years that i have been here, seven out of the 43 years that mr. young served in the congress. we represented st. petersburg and the tampa bay area together. i know i speak for my predecessors jim davis and sam gibbons, who also passed last year, when i say that congressman bill young was an outstanding partner for the state of florida. it is very appropriate that we honor bill young by naming the paper finds va -- bay pines va medical center after him. he was a fixture at the ceremonies every year, but more importantly, he was a fixture when there was no ceremony, when he would visit wounded soldiers in the hospital or at their homes, when there was no fanfare and he just determined that it was just his desire to ensure that the servicemembers and their families receive the care that they deserve and that they had earned. many facilities at the air force base in tampa are state of the artist due to mr. young's extra attention, and i very little to the healthy right to me when the soldiers and civilians who work there were any. for example, in the past year, he was at our efforts, and macdill means mobility when it comes to attention at the base. when it was not assisting former servicemembers and their families who qualify for medicare health services, he helped cut through the red tape. many also would point to his expensive air max -- earmarks in a variety of ways. our drinking water reservoir is the bill young reservoir. medical research at the university of south florida, programs that st. petersburg college, programs that eckerd college, and we are so proud that mr. young initiated the national bone marrow donor program the children's hospital in st. petersburg. it was through mr. young's leadership that the bay pines va medical center was great. it is now the fourth-largest in the country. it serves veterans all across west central florida and employees of many talented caregivers. so it is a fitting tribute to this remarkable american to name the the pines va medical center in his honor, and i'm proud to cosponsor the resolution. congressman young was a model statesman. his kindness, sincerity, and dogged at for our nation's many women in uniform and veterans will be missed. >> the gentlelady's time is expired. >> i'm proud to yield one minute to the gentleman from florida, mr. dian-balart. >> the gentleman is from florida is recognized. >> thank you, mr. speaker. you know, we literally could be here days speaking about the many accomplishments of chairman young, and those days would not suffice. i got a chance to work with him on the appropriations committee, and i will tell you that so many times i went to him for advice, for help. leon was one of those people you always went to -- bill young was one of those people you always went to when you needed help. he was such a wise man. as i said a little while ago, since we would never have enough time to talk about all his great compliments. and you have heard not only but his accomplices with the fact that he was an incredibly honorable, caring, wise, and statesman is a word that comes to mind. since my time is limited, i just want to echo something that i heard -- i am not quite sure who said it, but i read it to be a great man, you first have to be a good man. if there is anybody that that phrase reminds us of, it is bill young. i yield back. >> the gentleman's time is expired. the gentleman continues to reserve. the gentlewoman from florida is recognized. >> i would like to yield two minutes to the gentleman from texas, ms. jackson lee. >> the gentlewoman from texas is recognized. >> i would like to thank the gentlelady from florida, the ranking member of the subcommittee of veterans, ms. brown, and i would like to thank chairman miller. we were together, and thank you summary much. i wanted knowledge as well the ranking member of the appropriations committee, ms. lowing, thank you for allowing me to share this evening. the comments and the appreciation and respect i have for bill young. first of all, i would like to say what everybody else has had what a great american, what a great patriot. what a great public servant. and bill, may you rest in peace. bill is on the floor, congressman young, chairman young, was on the floor of the house just a few weeks before he passed, and i think that is important to note that he was working every single day to make america better. he loved soldiers and veterans, he loved their families, and it is highly appropriate for him to have his name so honored, named as a veterans hospital. i want to say that it is particularly important to note that congressman young was able to speak to kings and queens and generals and people of high places, but he was best when he was talking to everyday people, to the soldier said he loved. he came from humble beginnings starting with his single parent, his mother, losing his home early in life, living in a hunting camp. you would think that he would not be the generous person he is today, but he is really what america's all about -- the american dream. i've are member his commitment to our soldiers and his easy ability to work across the aisle. as someone who advocated for soldier suffering from posttraumatic stress disorder, i want to let his family know how dedicated he was to resigning extra resources to the thousands upon thousands of soldiers who returned from iraq and afghanistan who needed extra help with posttraumatic stress disorder. he was very kind to those of us who are concerned about breast cancer and women in the u.s. military who may have experienced breast cancer. and working with me at session, in fact, the last two sections, to provide -- >> gentlelady. >> and he worked with them in last two sessions, mr. speaker, and providing extra funding for ptsd, a center that is in houston, texas, but also dealing with additional research for triple negative breast cancer that might have an impact not only in the military population of women but also with women around the nation. bill is like that. always extending, always sharing. he have a social place in my heart because my mother is from st. petersburg florida, but i was that he should have a special place in the hearts of all americans because if you ever want to see exemplified a grant and stately gentleman who had nothing in his heart but the love and respect and admiration for this nation, it was our dear friends, the honorable bill young. to his family, i say to them -- we love him, and we extend our deepest sympathies. thank you, my dear friend, you have served well, and i hope that you will rest well. may god bless him and god bless his family. i yield back. >> the gentleman from florida is recognized. >> i now yield one minute to the gentleman from arkansas, mr. womack. >> the gentleman from arkansas is recognized. >> thank you, mr. speaker. i rise today to join the chorus of people remembering our friend and the chairman of the defense subcommittee of appropriations, bill young. chairman young come as you know, spend five decades of his life in this chamber fighting for a better america for both his constituents and our country. as the dean of the republican conference, he was a leader and a counsel to colleagues young or old, republican or democrat. mr. speaker, i am the newest member of the defense subcommittee of appropriations. i was fortunate to receive his mentor ship. i learned from his fearless, unparalleled support of our troops and our veterans, and i admired his outspoken and unwavering commitment to what was in their best interest. mr. speaker, the a veteran myself of over 30 years, i was also a beneficiary of his incredible support of those who wear the uniform. while his presence will be forever missed, the bill young department of veterans affairs medical center will serve as a small and fitting reminder that this institution of our men and women in uniform, and america are undoubtedly better off because of bill young, and i'm proud to support it. i yield back. >> the gentleman's time is expired. >> can you tell me how much time we have now? >> the gentlelady has 4.5 minutes, the gentleman has 10.5 minutes. >> thank you. i would like to yield three minutes to the gentlewoman from new york, mrs. lowey. >> the gentlewoman from new york is recognized. >> mr. speaker, i rise today in support of this bill. for more than 40 years, bill young served his district in this institution with integrity and honor after having served our country in the army national guard for nearly a decade. as chairman of the appropriations committee, his leadership, advocacy for our men and women in uniform and our veterans was unsurpassed. in a time when political culture too often devolves into hostility, and compromise is a dirty word, bill young was always a gentleman who consistently reached across the aisle. he would share with me his visits with his dear wife, beverly, to wounded warriors to bring them comfort. how happy those visits made him. it was such a pleasure to serve with him. he will be truly missed. renaming this va facility in his memory is a tribute to his legacy. he will be missed. rest in peace. god bless you, and god bless america. >> the lady yields back. the gentleman from florida is recognized. >> we have no more speakers requesting time and we are prepared to close if ms. brown is prepared. >> the gentlelady is recognized. >> thank you, mr. speaker. first of all, let me thank chairman miller for organizing this tribute to chairman young. in closing, you know, i often say when you are born, you get a birth certificate, and when you die, you are going to get a death certificate. that little dash in between is what you have done to make this a better place. i don't know anyone that has done more than chairman bill young. it has been my honor having the opportunity to serve with him, his leadership for the florida delegation. i mean, we have gone for some tough times, but i can tell you he has always been a gentleman. when i first began, i said one of my favorite songs is let the work i've done speak for me. clearly he has done his work, and he has fought a good fight, and he has done his job. it is left up to us to continue his great work, and i yield back the balance of my time. >> the gentlelady yields back. the gentleman from florida is recognized. >> mr. speaker, i want to thank all the members on both sides of the aisle for their kind words that they've set for our friend, bill young. i sincerely hope that the words give beverly, rob, bill young patrick some measure of consolation. while we know a log or have bill's personal and wise counsel to go to, that beautiful veterans medical center will bear his name, and it will give witness to his many years of service to america and her defenders. i want to thank my good friend, ms. brown, for her help in bringing this bill to the floor and the over 375 cosponsors that we have brought on this piece of legislation. i respectfully ask all members to join us in supporting this piece of legislation, hr 3302, and i yield back the balance of my time. >> the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the question is -- will the house suspend the rules and pass the bill hr 3302? in the opinion of the chair, two thirds being in the affirmative, the rules are suspended. the bill is passed. without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] the bill moves to the senate for consideration. >> c-span brings public affairs events from washington to you, putting you in the room at congressional hearings, white house events, and conferences, offering coverage of the u.s. house as a public service of private industry. created by the cable industry 34 years ago, and funded by your local satellite provider pretty you can watch us in hd. logan moderates discussion on afghanistan policy. this was part of a conference hosted by the foreign-policy initiative. >> if anyone still cares, i'm sure you're going to pay attention to what these gentlemen have to say, it struck me when i was doing my research for today that what is interesting about the panel is wellafghanistan is regulated. each of these individuals have an understanding. everyone has a depth of reporting in the region. what you also have is .ndividuals who are specialists military of the strategy. ashley, whoe dr. has been in india. of course, dr. cave and is known for his work in iraq. in the new york times. what you have here is an opportunity to remind ourselves what is it stake in afghanistan and why the u.s. should care. i want to put it in a much more pointed way. that is to say that over the last couple of years, the term war has become unpopular in washington. in fact, from the cia to the white house, it is clear that using the term war on terror was a mistake. i am conscious of the fact that every other day i get another casualty report from the battlefield. as far as they know, they are still fighting a war. you have an afghan election coming up. you have united states pulling out of afghanistan, to a large degree. you have a nation that has completely lost interest in what is going on over there, and is not given a reason to care by its leaders. behind the stage, we picked our first victim. he is going to begin this conversation. i have interviewed him before. i can promise you he is not boring. >> that is a very kind introduction. i will be brief. and then we will all discuss various aspects. i think we will have a useful q&a portion of this. let me highlight a few things. if you look at polling data, it is probably worth being upfront about this. according to a july poll from 2013, conducted by the washington post and abc news, 20% of americans believe the war in afghanistan was worth fighting. not just is, but was worth fighting. that differs significantly from october of 2001, the month after the september 11 attacks, when 90% of americans, 97% of republicans and 85% of democrats, supported u.s. military action in afghanistan. over the following decade plus, we have seen a huge drop in support about whether we should have gone there in the first place. i am going to argue, somewhat controversially, that i still strongly will argue, as we peered on the future, that the u.s. has said it is going to stop combat operations by december 2014. it is still not clear what that means. it has not been an announcement of what force number is going to look like. i am going to argue that four major factors should give one pause in exiting afghanistan. the first is, you would not know it by political statements. but al qaeda's global leadership today is still located in this region. afghanistan, pakistan. it has been weakened by drone strikes. we have seen that this week with the human rights watch report. it has been weakened. but in my view, a civil war or a successful taliban, -- taliban- led insurgency, would almost certainly allow al qaeda back into afghanistan and pakistan. i was just there last month along the border. there is still a presence of terrorists, including al qaeda fighters. virtually everyone i spoke to involved in targeting them, people i have worked with in the past, have said they will be there after 2014. there is concern in some areas of the east. they may be there in larger numbers. the global leadership is still there. there are a number of sunni jihadist in the region that are not going away. some of them, including the taliban in pakistan, put an suv in times square. another conducted a major terrorist attack in mumbai. there is still a terrorism issue. the civil war or a successful taliban-led insurgency would deal a severe blow to human rights, including women's rights. the taliban would likely reverse progress in a country that has experienced an extraordinary improvement in the number of female business owners, government officials, primary, secondary, and university students. you would see a major backlash. third, burgeoning war in this region would likely increase instability with india, pakistan, iran, and russia, and i am going to add china to this. all have nuclear weapons or a nuclear program. there is a concern about regional instability, particularly between pakistan and india. i conclude by saying a u.s. exit from this country would likely foster a perception about u.s. reliability. when you look at al qaeda statements recently, i am going to leave you with one final thought. an american exit from afghanistan -- we have already seen this in jihadist networks. if it were to happen, it would likely be viewed and trumpeted by extremist groups, including al qaeda, as their most important victory since the departure of soviet forces from afghanistan in 1989. that is a very, very dangerous legacy we have to think very carefully about. we could talk about how to proceed later, but let me leave you with that thought. >> you were nodding your head at a few points there. i know the nuclear issue is one you have spent a lot of time on. can you take the floor? >> i would be happy to start by emphasizing a point seth just made. the american and international project in afghanistan over the last several years has been far more successful than people give us or the afghans credit for. remember, this is a country that went through several decades of violent war. every state and societal institution was essentially destroyed. when you look at afghanistan today, what you actually have is a constitutional regime of the kind that was simply impossible to succeed under the high tide of soviet occupation and the painful years after. you are now looking at a country that has the potential to build on a structure that, if improved and invested in, can actually provide more opportunities, including for those currently opposing the state. just recognizing that this has been a success, you can put together a structure where all you had before was an anarchy. >> americans do not care about that, because their leaders keep telling them the afghans are corrupt, dishonest, unreliable, that karzai is an unreliable partner. they are never given a reason to believe in anything the u.s. has achieved in afghanistan. >> i think the facts refute that on the face of it. development indicators in afghanistan today are better than they have been in a long time. corruption is endemic to all third world societies. afghanistan is by no means either particularly egregious or unique. the question is not whether one needs to bail out afghanistan because it has the maladies of an underdeveloped state, but whether we can persist consistently in afghanistan, not necessarily for the sake of afghanistan alone, but because it fundamentally comports with our own interests. those interests come back to the same interests we went into afghanistan to begin with in 2001. there is still an unresolved security problem in afghanistan that directly affects the well- being of the american people, and those of our allies. >> is there anyone on this panel who would disagree with that? >> not me, for sure. i think that as we think about afghanistan and why it matters, there is a tendency to treat it in isolation, to have this discussion as though the discussion we were having is whether we should put troops into afghanistan or not. when people say it is not worth it for us to be there, why should we go into afghanistan if we are not going into yemen, the problem is that you start from reality where you actually are. we have been in afghanistan. we have made an enormous effort in afghanistan. we have made and in norma's amount of progress. there is a force getting after our enemies. this is taking it to al qaeda and allies. they are doing that increasingly. but they will not be ready in 2014 to take over that responsibility without american assistance, because they were not designed for that role, anymore than iraqi security forces were designed to be ready to take over responsibility. >> domestic political deadlines? >> it was a negotiated deadline with the iraqis that originated with us. in the case of afghanistan, it also originated with us, but has become an international deadline the afghans hold us to. but they are arbitrary deadlines, and were tied to the situation on the ground. i bring up iraq, recognizing how painful it topic it is. just because something is painful does not mean we should talk about whether it is important. talking about the path to zero, the model is iraq. iraq worked out pretty well. there is no reason we should not do that in afghanistan. iraq is a catastrophe, which has gone unreported. you have now a franchise that is back to the level of car bombing that it is conducting at the height of the surge in 2007, before the violence came down. that has all happened since american forces withdrew. the administration line is, we do not need to worry about it. it is in a place called iraq, and we do not believe in that. >> they fly the flag of al qaeda. they read statements in the name of al qaeda. >> they set up these islamic emirates, and they fly al qaeda flags and have foreign fighters. >> it is everything they have to say about who they are. >> and everything we know about who they are. what the administration is trying to do -- this is important. the administration is trying to define the threat from al qaeda down to be only those individuals who were either involved in the 9/11 attacks or part of the organization at the time. if you want to picture, in the white house somewhere, a poster that has the faces of all those people on it, with x through phases of people we have taken down, i think that is pretty much administration strategy. the problem is, the world has changed since 9/11, and al qaeda has, although in some cases it has not. >> you have people, like at guantánamo, who went from afghanistan to sudan, back to afghanistan. and he was handed back to the libyans, he was released by gaddafi, founded an organization in the east of libya, and we no longer call him al qaeda. he is one of the original al qaeda members. we want to now say he is a link or associated group. even having a pedigree that goes back 30, 40 years is not enough to get you called al qaeda today in washington. >> right. and we spend too much of our time thinking about who is currently planning to attack the united states. and not enough time thinking about what capabilities the global al qaeda movement has to attack the united states over the long-term, and what are we doing to address those capabilities, and the spread of those ideologies. >> i want to put two things to you. i think you and i were both there from the beginning. and we remember what people today in america seem to have forgotten, which is the promises the united states made when they came into afghanistan. to me, this is a very important point, because it speaks to integrity, honor, loyalty, and the nature of being a good ally. this was raised a little bit by you. the reason i find it so significant is that i think when we think of the united states and what it is meant to stand for and represent, it is very hard to look afghans in the eye today and say that we are honorable people who keep our word. we lost interest in keeping our word. just because you wear traditional robes and do not speak english does not mean you do not get it. you know when you have been betrayed or let down. that is how a large majority of afghans feel, which only makes them more resentful. how do we end up in this position where afghans feel betrayed and we feel we wasted our efforts ? >> a good point. the u.s. has promised much, and it has given much. it has given both treasure and blood. we can talk about how well it was used and what the right strategies were. i will be the first one to say that big mistakes were made over that time. we look afghans in the eye in 2001 and said we will be committed to reducing, if not eliminating, terrorist groups operating from this region. we will stay until that objective is met. what we have now said is, sure, that objective has not been met, but we are still leaving anyway. the blame has largely been placed on the karzai government. i will also say very bluntly that there have been massive corruption problems within the government. as there have been in any government in south asia. there have been challenges building national security apparatus. there has been corruption problems in the u.s. dealing with contracts in afghanistan. i would say, first and foremost not just to the afghan people, can we look the american people in the eye and say we have reached a point in afghanistan where the american homeland is safe, for now, and in the foreseeable future? i think the evidence, as i have spoken to operators on the ground from the region last month, suggests no, not at all. there are foreign fighters continuing to come into camps in the region. there is still active plotting. the leader of this organization is still headquartered in this area. this organization is not bad by any means. >> or decimated. >> or decimated. it is not on the verge of strategic defeat, as some would argue. >> i will come back to you. >> on the contrary, if you look at any portrayal of where all qaeda is today globally, it has a much larger footprint and a much more advanced organization than it did in 2001. also than it did in 2009. it is absolutely unjustifiable to talk about this organization as having been decimated. i want to follow-up on the issue of betraying the afghan people. it is very important. not just a question of american honor. nor is it just a question of, will other people believe in us, which is also especially after the syria debacle extremely important. and egypt, and many other things. and probably iran. but it is very important for practical reasons. what is al qaeda? not just a terrorist organization. it sees itself as the vanguard of insurgency in the muslim world. >> political revolutionaries. >> what is our ideal end state? that the muslim world defeat this insurgency. not only rejected, but defeated. in order for that to happen, we need people in muslim countries to stand up and fight against al qaeda. they have done that in iraq and afghanistan. i know that seth and i have been on the ground and spoken with iraqis and afghans who say, are you going to be there with us when these guys come back and try to kill her families? the fact that in iraq has been the answer has been "heck no," and we are having the answer in afghanistan about going to zero, that undermines the best possible outcome we could have in this struggle, muslim people rising up against this hateful ideology on their own. >> seth, you and i both know, the former spy chief of afghanistan told me years ago when i asked him about that, he said to me, he said afghanistan is a small, poor third world nation. we do not have any illusion, and we do not think for one moment we can influence the united states. but i will tell you this. i have been fighting these people long before you came to my country. these mountains were here before you. these rivers were here. and they will continue to flow after you are gone. he said the leader of the taliban, these are truly forces of darkness, and they cannot engender a vision for this world. so i will be fighting, whether or not you are. i found that to be true then and true today. what i love about it is this articulate afghan man, he put it so perfectly. the afghans were fighting al qaeda long before the u.s. was in battle with al qaeda. now we look at the afghans and say, you are on your own. i spoke this morning to someone on the ground in kabul, and the sense i have from the john kerry-karzai negotiations is neither of them are particularly committed to this agreement they have come up with. that is not good for us -- afghanistan and is not good for the u.s. can you pick up on that? >> is very important to recognize one simple fact. we cannot afford to let all qaeda and jihadist islam more generally enjoy another victory. i think there are many jihadists in afghanistan and around the \in afghanistan and around the world who believe they successfully confronted the soviet union and defeated it. that empowered the movement. it has become extremely dangerous for us, not only in south asia, but worldwide. it cannot and of leaving the rich -- region in the situation where they control the same conclusion that they have defeated the united states as well. that is something we have -- ought to keep in mind as a strategic consequence of the way we manage the transition. another point i want to make, getting afghanistan right does not require overinvestment on the part of the united states. it is important to understand that what we need to do for success in afghanistan does not require us to bankrupt the united states. it does not require an open- ended uncontrolled commitment of resources. >> which is unpopular. >> which is unpopular, and which is unnecessary, given the gains made in the last several years. what it does require is a responsibility, a consistency of leadership, and a willingness to hold out support until afghanistan can make the transition to being independent. >> how long are you talking? >> it is extremely hard to make that judgment. but we have to be committed to the principle that as long as the afghans are willing to put their foot to the pedal the united states will stand with them in making this possible. this is the kind of discussion we ought to have. in the abstract, discussions about the numbers of troops, discussions about lines of assistance, these haven't been helpful. we need to assure afghans that if they make their contribution the united states will not be found wanting. you discover the numbers are actually not as overwhelming as people think. i hope in the discussion that follows we get a chance to explore this. >> seth, i will say some listening to this might think, these guys are crazy. this is a done deal. we are out of there. not even going to consider anything other than how fast they can get out. >> one, the decision has not been reached. december 2014 is in theory the end of combat operations. what does that mean? has not been decided. i am a little bleak on whether this administration is committed to keeping a necessary footprint in afghanistan. this brings up an issue that we might disagree on somewhat. which is, what should we be doing? what should the footprint look like? i will briefly say -- state, these situations are very difficult -- different, but when i look around the world of where the u.s. has been able to deploy forces, whether it has been in the philippines or a range of other countries. philippines after 9/11, with a somewhat light footprint supporting local forces, i am not convinced at this point in the struggle that those numbers have to be higher. i think the u.s. could remain in afghanistan with a legal counterterrorism footprint that is joint special operations command forces. u.s. special operation forces and other conventional forces to do basic training, advising, and assisting. enablers, airpower, conducting strikes in case there are, in case there is pressure by the taliban or groups on a city. predator reiber capability that can collect intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance. i look at numbers between eight and 12,000 u.s. forces -- 8000 and 12,000 u.s. forces that let afghans do the bulk of the fighting. the u.s. is largely in a supporting role, as being sufficient. >> the afghans are willing to do the bulk of the fighting. >> they have been. afghans have been taking multiples of the casualties american and international forces have been taking for quite some time. they are bleeding in this war, and they are continuing to recruit. i want to make one point about the numbers we talk about. we can come to different conclusions about feasibility. but there was a question, is this something we are prepared to say that if the requirement in afghanistan to achieve american vital national security interests is 15,000 troops, but the white house only wants to put 12,000 troops in their -- there, is the president prepared to say he is going to compromise vital american national interest over 2000 troops? is that a rational tabulation? are we prepared to say we will put in 12,370 five troops, but not one more? if we lose therefore, so be it? you ought to think that we have vital national security interest in afghanistan, in which case we would be well advised to put in the resources required to achieve that. or you do not, in which case we should not be there. >> what that reminds me of is general shin seki saying you need to hundred thousand troops to hold it before the iraq war. that was unpopular. it reminded me of general mcchrystal making a recommendation on numbers. before he made his recommendation -- political leaders seeking political advice from the military rather than pure military advice. even if you go back to afghan -- vietnam, that has always been the case, but no less troubling today. we have a question from the audience that was one of my favorite questions. it is something. i have been shot at from the pakistani side of the order. i pressed president bush are on this question. in one of -- president musharraf on this question. the cia said if you let them operate on pakistani soil they could find osama bin laden. i said, you are the president, you can say whatever you like. and where was osama bin laden found? who found him, by the way? i know this is something you spent a lot of time on. it is a question that i think is extremely important. president karzai annoyed a lot of americans saying, you're in the wrong villages, you should be across the border. what people still need to understand about what he is saying is you and i both know the problem lies in the safe havens in pakistan. you are not doing anything about it. so this question comes from peter with the american enterprise institute who says, american enemies have complete freedom of movement in pakistan. how can we defeat al qaeda without addressing the issue of pakistan? we cannot open up another front, we can't afford another war, but that suggest nothing can be done. what we have in pakistan is a failed policy. it was a failed policy under president bush, and it is failed policy under president obama. who wants to take that one? >> i can start. let me just start with what i consider to be the reality, which is the war in afghanistan, partly what we are talking about here, there are plenty of afghan taliban. 20 of individuals in afghanistan fighting. that said, it is worth noting very specifically that the command and control structures for every single insurgent group, every single major insurgent group, taliban, haqqani network, are all on the pakistan side of the border. that is where the command and control nodes are. the taliban's leadership structure sits in southern pakistan, in baluchistan. one level down in the organizational structure you have three regional committees. one is in cuetta, the the second, the third is an -- in waziristan. the borders are significant. when you look at the command- and-control nodes for al qaeda's global leadership, they also sit on the pakistan side. indeed, we spent a lot of time talking about afghanistan. there is an afghan dimension to it. it is important. but the command-and-control nodes for every major insurgent group sit on the other side. i will say that with both this administration and the last one there have been virtually no -- no major efforts, successful efforts, to target taliban leadership on the pakistan side of the border. there are no but -- drone strikes in baluchistan, virtually no individuals captured. that is where the taliban senior leadership is located. if we wanted to really get serious about this, and one has to take into consideration, why has little been done, and what are the implications of continuing to do virtually nothing about this? i can leave this to others to solve, but i want to get the threat and reality on the table. there is a very serious pakistan issue. >> can i add two points to that? i think we should at least entertain the hope that pakistan will recognize it is in its interest to do more than it has ever done before for a very simple reason. now that there is a realistic prospect the united states might leave, it could end up leaving behind and afghanistan that becomes a sanctuary for terrorists groups that are as much anti-pakistan as they are anti-afghanistan and anti-united dates. for the first time, pakistan has to confront a reality that afghanistan could begin to feed and funnel terrorist groups that undermine its own interest. we cannot count, however, on pakistan reaching the right conclusions from this. therefore, i think we need to rethink the character of our relationship with pakistan. to my mind, there is no alternative but to make the relationship with pakistan a lot more contingent on pakistani behaviors that we have historically done. we can debate the details about how this contingency is to be expressed. but if you have a relationship with pakistan that in a fact conveys to them that no matter what late -- they do, american largesse will flow to pakistan on interrupted, you have created a situation they have no incentives to change. at the very least, the u.s. needs to look at itself and its own policies to think about how we might re-engagement pakistan. let me end by saying a word about india. india is deeply concerned that a premature american exit from afghanistan would end up leaving that country in exactly the way the indians pasted in the 1990's, essentially a sanctuary for terrorists groups that would move to attack indian interests. they have said they will do anything they can to prevent the current government of pakistan from being overthrown by force. we have to recognize realities. the indians do not have the capacity to substitute for the united states. they will look, like many allies, at the united states before they begin to show their hand. the surest way to lose all the regional allies who might be supportive of kabul is for the united states to run first to the exit. it comes back at the end of the day to consistency of policy and consistency of leadership. we should not be surprised to find afghanistan loses many of its regional partners. >> i have to say that i am less optimistic about pakistan than i am about afghanistan. i think there are things we can do in afghanistan to move it in the right direction. there are forces working in afghanistan moving in the right direction. pakistan is an enormously difficult problem. a country of 190 million people, approaching 100 nuclear weapons, and the largest concentration of terrorist groups anywhere in the world. it is clearly a problem. my question to be fully say, why are we in afghanistan when pakistan is the problem? you have to explain to me why tuition is helped by taking -- the situation is helped by taking a weekend -- weakened al qaeda taliban infrastructure in pakistan and making it wrong or by trying to persuade the pakistanis to fight the ramifications of that on their side. you cannot win this fight on either side of the line. the corollary is you cannot win in afghanistan if you lose in afghanistan. they are linked in that way. this is too often left out of our discussion entirely. one of the reasons to care about afghanistan is because of pakistan. >> and because of pakistan's nuclear weapons. >> yes. >> another question from the audience. he said, why blame our leaders when it is the media that constantly reports on corruption, failure programs, etc.? i would say we both their responsibility. without any question. the media is culpable. there is some good reporting on afghanistan. not nearly enough. there is some terrible reporting on afghanistan. what i would point out here to you is that the journalists writing about this stuff are getting calls from government officials who, by the way, love to leak things when they are the ones doing the leaking. they are very active in going after leakers when they do not like weeks because they -- leaks because they counteract the message. apparently the media does not seem to raise much of an objection about that. there is a lot lacking in the media. i take full responsibility for that. i would say to you, i did a piece about the return of al qaeda in afghanistan. the significance of what they were doing and how, for example, after bin laden was killed the announcement that came for his replacement came out of the defective headquarters of al qaeda in a -- afghanistan. the evidence is there, and not enough journalists are paying attention to it. that is definitely a factor. the people giving the message to our deliberately misleading our the leadership. that is what i hold them accountable for. when we look at the reality on the ground, it is different to the picture painted by the leadership. we all have a responsibility to be honest. not just the media and not just the politicians. policy is something we have not addressed well in the media. a failure of policy in afghanistan. a failure of policy in pakistan. when the afghans ask us what our policy is on pakistan, we do not even have one to tell them. certainly not one that makes any sense or gives them any confidence. we are very quick to hold the military accountable, as we should be. but no one seems to be as quick to hold the politicians accountable for their failures. the next question comes from the university of wisconsin. i think this is a fair point. with all the signs of progress cited by the panel, what percent of the afghan population is now part of a functioning modern state? we know there is no percentage. but that is not necessarily the benchmark of progress. i do remember an afghanistan the did not have one pane of glass from the length and breadth of the country. kabul today is pretty dramatically different today. >> the objective is not to establish a modern functional state in afghanistan. and that has not been the objective for quite a number of years. i had the privilege of serving on general mcchrystal pasha initial assessment review. we had a long conversation about what exactly the objectives should be. concluded, and this is what i believe the white house also believed and believes, that the objective is a state in afghanistan regarded as legitimately -- sufficiently legitimate by its people that the nature of the state is not fueling an active insurgency against it. the question is not whether kabul is going to look like washington or topeka. the question is whether the afghan people are going to accept the legitimacy of the government the way most people in most countries around the world and all countries that do not have insurgencies do. that is a different standard in different parts of afghanistan, as you know. when you go into valleys, they do not want any government. when you try to bring government to them you have a big problem. in urban centers, it is a very different situation. i think we have seen some progress. the corruption is important. the corruption has been a driver of instability for a variety of reasons and will continue to be. but we are looking for something that will satisfy the afghan people. that is what we have been driving toward, and as with the progress has been moving toward even though we do not recognize it as a kind of a monomeric -- most americans would want to live in. >> several of us have spent time over the years in afghanistan. how many types of states there are within it. there is a formal state apparatus that is based out of kabul that has ministries. the when you get in rural areas, you get an informal apparatus. this is a very different kind of this is a very different kind of structure. this is not the balkans. this is not germany after world war ii, or japan after world war ii. the state system is very different here. there is a limited central government and you get into southern afghanistan, for example, you have tribes, sub- tribes, clans, powerbrokers. the interesting thing is, over the first couple years of the struggle, how many resources the u.s. tried to push through the state system, including building a court apparatus and judges and things we think are near and dear to us. when you get into rural areas, justice is handed down through informal apparatus. leaders in a village will adjudicate disputes informally. this is not the united states. this is not western-style state apparatus. part of the issue, i think we need to be a little careful about what we are trying to construct and what we should construct. i strongly second fred's point. one of the things that has struck me about the media , and lara, you have been a major exception, is how little people have look at the other side of the struggle. this is not just about focusing on what is going on within the u.s. within the afghan government. there are problems, like in any war. but look at the taliban side, they have had to establish and accountability commission because there has been corruption within the taliban. they are involved in the drug trade. they are involved in trafficking, in targeted assassination. roughly 75% to 80% of civilians killed are done by the insurgent side. one of the disservice is, i think, to the coverage of this war from the media perspective is when issues of corruption, the focus is on one side. the reality is this is a struggle within and among multiple different organizations that, and there are as many, if not more, challenges within the insurgency as there are within the government. everything from corruption to the inability of taliban forces to read. when people show me literacy rates among afghan forces i say, well, it is interesting to compare that, they are better than they are the insurgent side. you want to talk about comparison. that has been a bit of a disservice in the media coverage of the war. >> ashley -- >> i would make the point that afghanistan has always been a decentralized state. any mental model that things of afghanistan as a unity central state is using the wrong benchmark. the benchmark we ought to be using is a very simple one. for the average afghan, is security increased in the everyday circumstance of their lives? has there been a mechanism for dispute resolution and the administration of justice? are ordinary afghans able to conduct their economic activities without undue interference from the state? these are the metrics by which to judge progress. i think as both fred and seth said, the picture varies considerably depending on which part of afghanistan you go to. our objective has to make certain that the portions of afghanistan that have not established progress actually begin to grow and develop on the basis of the example set by their most vessel neighbors -- successful neighbors. >> this last question, i would like everybody to answer it. i'm going to take a question from the audience and add to it myself. we have here, i'm going to mess up your last name, from the christian science monitor. if the qaeda leadership is along the afghan-pack as -- afghan- pakistan border, does that mean the u.s. has lost this war? if we have not won the war in 12 years, what more can u.s. troops the cobblers? what i would like to add to that, there is a narrative that is pushed by the pro-taliban faction and by other people in washington that says the taliban does not have any beef with america beyond the fact you are in their backyard. there is no ideology. go home and we are done, it is over. those are the people who believe that the taliban and al qaeda's relationship can be questioned and pulled apart. i would put to that that of all the people from the taliban side who have been persuaded to give up arms, not a single one of them has ever publicly announce renounced al qaeda. not a single taliban leader, not the haqqanis, who have more than 30,000 fighters. what the military could achieve beyond 2013, 2014, 2015 -- why we should care, what are the consequences of coming home, why does it matter? >> you want me to take a crack at that? i think the most important thing we can do post-2014 is to help the afghan state take greater responsibility for the security of its own country. in practical terms, what that means our --are three things. first, standby afghanistan so it can negotiate with regional neighbors from some position of strength as opposed to simply becoming a victim to its more powerful neighbors. two, we have to help the afghan state overcome what will be a severe contraction in national gnp after u.s. and international forces cease to engage in security operations post-2014. nothing works if you do not have an economy that is at least moderately successful. anticipating the contraction in afghan gdp and working to mitigate it, at least until afghanistan to step -- stand on its feet, is the second important objective. the third is helping the ansf, the afghan national security forces, essentially succeed in the fight which is increasingly their own. the role we can play is not for the united rates and the international community to take the lead in funding. the afghans want to do that, are willing to do that. what we need to do is simply provide them the tools so that they can finish the job. >> let me just add to a couple of ashley's comments. i think one way to look at this is if you look at the last major ideological struggle that the u.s. was engaged in against the soviet union during the cold war, i do not want to draw too many parallels here, but it was a struggle in part against marxism and leninism. not just on the battlefield. if you were to ask yourself in 19 exceed, we -- 1960, we have been at this for 15 years after yalta. haven't we been doing this long enough, struggling in africa, in latin america, in eastern europe? if we sold out the opposition groups in poland in the 1960's and 1970's? the struggles not ashley and until the late 1980's -- not actually and -- end into the late 1980's and early 1990's, when groups rose up against an ideology the population just could not live with. to shift gears here, afghanistan is a good example of this. we are in a struggle with an oppressive ideology. the taliban's vision of afghanistan, in syria, they are different in some ways. in afghanistan, the groups trying to win this one from the opposition side are trying to establish an extreme version of islam. an emirate where the most important ministry is virtue and vice. it is an ideological struggle. i would just say the people who want to give up this early on, remember this one is a generational struggle. not one that is going to be measured in months or years. i would view afghanistan in a much broader sense. when you look at what is happening in north africa, look what is happening in the middle east, this is a struggle that is happening on multiple continents. the leadership, though, sits in this particular region. which is why i'm going to end my comments here by noting that this is what makes this particular theater so critically important. the leadership structure sits here. >> i second all of those comments. it is quite true that mullah omar never swore allegiance to osama bin laden. because it was the other way around. osama bin laden swore allegiance to mullah omar. as we talk about disaggregating al qaeda and the taliban, it is important to understand they have been aggregated for two decades. there have been arguments about whether to break with al qaeda. it was a big argument in the 1990's. mullah omar was on one side, guess who won? there was a fight over to hand over of some bin laden -- osama bin laden. these are groups that have been fighting together and for each other for a long time. i know there are people who think they can see into mullah omar's soul and believe if only they could talk to him we could work this puppy out. but there is no basis in reality for that view. as we talked about, i think seth's analogy is a very good one. the tide of war is receding. the tide of war is not receding. are any measure, the amount of war in the world today is higher than it was when barack obama took this. it is higher than it was when george bush took office, also. the tide of war is not receding. the tide of american desire to be involved in wars receding. now i have to go back to my roots as a sovietologist. we may be tired of war, but war is not tired of us. we can decide that we are going to stop fighting al qaeda, but al qaeda has not decided it is going to stop trying to attack us. every day, thousands of al qaeda fighters and leaders wake up and ask themselves what they can do that day to improve their ability to kill americans. as long as that is true, we do have a dog in this fight. we can argue about strategies and we can argue about whether we should do this or that or how many troops, but we do not receive my understanding that that is the world -- -- as it actually is, we are doomed from the standpoint of developing a decent strategy. lastly, i want to say that we have been talking about two different things that are treated as different but should not be. what is the humanitarian issue in afghanistan and promises to the afghan people. the question of what will happen to afghan women, and so forth. the other is our security interest. those are actually in my view not easily separable. because the united states is not, or should not be, and a moral actor in the world. -- an amoral actor in the world. we should not be a country that does not care if millions of people who we promised safety and security and a certain kind of life are suddenly victimized, killed, and treated horribly. we should care about that. the reflection of the possibility of that kind of care, i think, is in the formation of a new group that was rolled out yesterday that i had the pleasure to be a part of, the alliance in support of the afghan people. which has members from the spectrum, from me to gloria steinem. and both sides are represented in this because it is a recognition that the united states has obligations to these people for their security, and obligations of them also for the ethical nature and morality of our international engagement. we really cannot lose sight of either of those. >> thank you. >> the campaign changed our family because of john kennedy making virginia eight battleground. we are catholic. knowing that that was going to be a big part of the selection -- could he write that religious barrier e i never thought there was a barrier. in my old town everybody worked in the coal mines. my grandfather had a grocery store and furniture store. everyone made about the same amount of money. there is no class i can ever recall. i never thought religion was a problem. we are all the same. that was a big thing. it got me interested. i'll never forget what night we were watching the news. it was talking about this -- if john kennedy got elected the pope would run the country. i said, i don't think they know the catholics we know. >> i was single and i was elected to congress. the best thing that happened to me was meeting brian rogers and getting married and becoming a wife and then a mom. our oldest -- it isn't what you expect. and it isn't what you dream. i sit here today and i am a better person because of coal and what he has taught me. he has given me a whole new passion for what i do here on capitol hill. them a house so? >> well, when you first get the news it is some of the most difficult news you receive as a parent. i look back on it now and i was immediately welcomed by the disabilities community. people all across this country who have been through similar experiences reached out and said it is going to be ok. >> cathy mcmorris rodgers and joe manchin both profiled in our c-span profiles. we will have those tomorrow at 6:35 and 9:35 p.m. eastern time. you can also tune in via c-span radio. this is about one hour. >> thank you very much, it is great to be here. i really appreciate the relationship with csis. my desire to learn more about issues -- nobody has been more helpful in that then john. the level of expertise here at csis is very helpful. we are trying to puzzle through some difficult and challenging national security issues. i want to talk about how we continue to proceed with our fight against al qaeda and their ideology. during my time in congress, nothing has changed our policy more than 9/11. it was a major shift, we have been reacting to that event ever since. we created the department of homeland security, the national director of intelligence, invaded afghanistan and iraq. how do we fight this war effectively? it is unlike any other battle that we have ever fought. what i want to do this morning is set the frame for where we are at and where we should go. more than a dozen years after the event, how are we doing, what are the challenges, how do we move forward. the central challenge that we have is we are still trying to accomplish two things. it is still a war, people forget that. al qaeda declared war on us in 1996, they have not changed their mind. the only thing stopping them from attacking us is our ability to stop them. that has not changed. the organization, the groups have metastasized and changed, we have grown, in some way stronger than others. in national security in the u.s., the dod, cia, the primary thing you are thinking about is whether or not there's going to be a terrorist attack and what you could do that day to prevent it. that is the dominating aspect of our national security policy. for all of the challenges we have with russia, china, the asia-pacific, latin america, the number one thing on our minds is protecting this country. the number one threat to that is terrorism and al qaeda and their offshoots. we have to fight that war, one of the best ways is to get them before they get us. that involves military action. the second thing we have been trying to accomplish -- president bush and obama have tried to figure out how to do this -- to win the ideological struggle. to stop people in the muslim world from wanting to join organizations like al qaeda. to bring greater stability and move towards a more moderate form of government in these countries. the great challenge is that number one conflicts with number two. we see that in the drone campaign. undeniably, it has been effective. the ability of al qaeda central leadership to plot attacks has been degraded, one of the biggest things is we have effectively targeted and disrupted their leadership. when your top terrorists are spending all of their time every day worrying about how they can stay alive, they cannot plot as effectively. that has worked. the other thing that is true is that the military campaign has made it more difficult to win the ideological struggle. to convince the muslim world and others to get away from al qaeda. the one narrative that al qaeda has is that they are the one group of people standing up against western aggression. standing up against the west's attempts to influence and attack the muslim world. to the extent that they are in the middle of the war, that feeds into that narrative. that is not an argument for not doing it. it is an argument for figuring out how to balance that. in any war, if you choose to attack, you will anger your enemy. you are trying to prevent them from attacking you. president obama -- when he got into office, had a very specific vision for how to do that. we are going to reset relationships. the goal was -- the notion was the world was not fond of the bush administration. they viewed us as trying to force our will on the rest of the world. you have a whole bunch of issues, you're going to change all that and work with the rest of the world. deliver a different message so that we can build broader support. it is fair to say, five years into it, that that has not worked. at this point, i have not seen any polling data, if you were to poll people in europe, the muslim world, elsewhere -- the level of support to the u.s. is probably about back to where it was during the bush administration. that is not the be-all end-all, we are not trying to protect our national security and thinking the number one goal is for everyone to like us. it is an important element. one of the more troubling things is not just the lack of support that we see from some of our allies, but domestically, some of the central underpinnings of our campaign to contain al qaeda and win the ideological war are not a supported in this country as we would like. people have long wanted us out of afghanistan. there is concern about drone attacks, the nsa revelations have undermined confidence. there are a number of different reasons. i will point out the reasons why we have not had as much success as we had hoped in terms of building broad support for our campaign. and then second, what we should do about it. the reasons why are clear, number one is the drone strikes. it has gotten a fair amount of attention. a number of civilian casualties, the justification for those attacks, the world is focused on this. i do believe that drones are getting an unfair portion of blame. a drone is a weapon of war. i don't feel that the world would feel any better if we were launching cruise missiles. i think there is too much emphasis how this has changed things, a drone is more dangerous than sending in a seal team. if anything, drones are more surgical. they are not the perfect instrument that they are sometimes described to be. we should be clear, as secretary gates was yesterday, it is war. in war, civilians suffer. we should not pretend that we have come up with some way to prevent that. we want to minimize that, but there will be innocent to suffer. the drones are one of the biggest reasons. another big reason is the fact that guantanamo is still open. for all of the efforts we have made to change interrogation, emphasizing normal civilian constitutional trials, the fact that guantanamo is still open, that is all the rest of the world needs to know. all the other efforts get swept under the rug, we still have over 160 people in prison, guantanamo. the other challenge is the arab spring. thomas friedman said it best, no president has faced as chaotic a situation in the middle east as president obama. whether you are talking about egypt, bahrain, libya, syria. it is a chaotic situation. we have seen the difficulties in developing our relationships with allies like saudi arabia and israel. everyone wants something different. we have broad goals, but goals conflict. we want democratic governments that represent the people. we want stability, we want to stop the rise of extremism. but what do you do when you have a situation like egypt? mubarak brought stability, he did not bring democracy and freedom. no matter which way you choose, you are contradicting one of your stated goals. that is one of the major problems we have with saudi arabia. when the democratically elected government was removed, that is contrary to our goal. but the democratic government that was removed was not terribly democratic. how do you strike that balance? that has presented a challenge. i will also mention the fact that the federal government here in the u.s. has been unable to function, unable to pass budgets. i could go off at length on this topic. i will just say two things. the nihilism of the tea party, the basic notion that all they want to do is hurt the federal government -- and they are incredibly indiscriminate about how they do it -- is a real problem. one of the things the federal government does is it provides for our national security. if you are hurting our federal government, you are hurting our ability to do national security. i cannot imagine what it is like to work at the pentagon right now. i was talking with people yesterday -- it is great, the government is open. that is how low a bar we have set. [laughter] with the cr, sequestration, every four or five months the threat of a government shutdown, there is no way we can function effectively. whatever you may think of how large the federal government should be, it is unacceptable to set up a situation where it cannot function. make no mistake, that hurts us and our ability to work with the rest of the world. they do not see us as as credible a force. those are some of the challenges that have made it more difficult to as effectively advance our policy. a couple quick things and then i will take your questions. the things that we need to change -- there is a need for greater transparency of our drone strikes. we need to make clear why we are targeting people. there are a bunch of different groups, that is the thing about al qaeda. some groups are formally affiliated, some groups have adopted the ideology. we need to make clear that our number one goal is to stop those groups that are plotting and planning attacks against our homeland and against western interests. there are a lot of other groups that we do not like, boko haram in nigeria -- they are not plotting attacks against us. it is self-defense if we are going after groups that are plotting attacks against us. it changes -- it was pakistan for a long time. and then the underwear bomber -- some attacks were coming out of yemen and we had to respond. i make no apology for the fact that we targeted anwar al- awlaki. he was targeting us. unfortunately, far too often, we do not make it clear why we are doing this. i understand the need for secrecy. we do not have to reveal all of it. whenever we do a targeted strike, whether it is a drone or sending in special operations, we need to at least briefly explain why. i realize that some of these strikes are on the title 50 side, they are secret. we can reveal what we want to reveal. we do have to reveal enough to say this is why we hit this person. it was clearly self-defense. i also think it is good at the president is moving us towards getting more into the dod title 10 side. also -- guantanamo is a big part of this. there is no reason we cannot close that prison. it would be a step in the right direction. the third thing is something that we have done, we need to do it more broadly -- build partner capacity. instead of the u.s. showing up and firing the shots, let's work with local allies to stop an insurgency before it gets started. number two, make sure it is the local forces that are enforcing the law. we have done this effectively in the philippines. we have had a presence there for a while. they are battling insurgents of a variety of stripes down there. it has been by and large effective, there has been an uptick in the last couple of months. no u.s. person has fired a shot, but we have been integral to success. the same is true in the horn of africa. we have worked with ethiopia, kenya, burundi, so it is a local fight, not something being dictated by the u.s. that would help, building up partner capacity. yes, let us get to the point where we actually fund our government on a regular basis. i could get into that but i will leave it at that. the last thing i will say is -- we need to better manage expectations as to what the u.s. can do. a large part of our problem with allies like israel and saudi arabia is that they expect that whatever problems it is, we should show up and solve it. there has always been a far greater gap between expectations and abilities, that gap is growing. the rest of the world is becoming more powerful. the u.s. is not as dominant as it used to be. the expectation that the u.s. can show up and fix it is a huge problem. during one of the riots in cairo, the interviewed a young man -- a movie played and got the muslim world all upset. the young man said "this would not be on the internet if president obama did not want it there." we need to make it clear that we are not part of the problem. that is the problem with syria, the u.s. stepped up and said it is an international norm, but somehow it is the sole responsibility of the u.s. to enforce it. that reinforces the message that if something bad happens in the world, it is because the u.s. has decided to allow it. that we could decide otherwise. that is not true. when i is it is a refugee camp in northern jordan, i was shocked at the number of refugees who said why don't you stop this. assad must be stopped, why isn't the u.s. doing it? we really are not capable of doing it. we cannot fix every problem in the world. the obama administration understands that. they have pushed to continue for a more cooperative approach. let us work with our allies to solve these problems instead of assuming that the u.s. has to show up and fix it. that is why in afghanistan everything that happens is our fault. we did not do enough for we did too much. we pulled out after the soviets fell, now we are back in and -- we have got to set more realistic expectations. work with local partners and international allies and try to fix the problem. this will be a long, tough battle. we are not going to be universally loved while we are trying to protect our country from al qaeda. if we make some of those changes, we can prosecute that war more effectively ended in a way that will build a greater chance of winning the ideological war, which is the most important piece. >> thank you very much, that was a tour de force across many of the most relevant issues today in national security policy. we will be challenged to stay inside our time. let me pull a few of the elements you raised together. early in your talk, you spoke on the use of unmanned systems. in the news, it is the aerial systems in particular. it is safe to say that there is a general consensus that these systems will become ubiquitous not of their lethal use, but in other uses. while it is aerial now, land and sea will proliferate as well. what is your sense -- given the issues we have had on the lethal targeting side -- different from a cruise missile, what are ways the u.s. can lead the rest of the world in setting norms in this area? >> that is difficult. i will come back to the central argument. the norm we are looking at is when is a legal strike appropriate? i do not know -- drones, we are supposed to call them unmanned systems -- i don't know that they change the fundamental questions. other countries are going to develop these things. how they use them is going to fit into many of the same conundrums and difficulties of what is an appropriate way to fight. you have seen that in syria. assad has killed tens of thousands of civilians, apparently a few thousand with chemical weapons. i agree that chemical weapons are a problem. you still have that -- if you are killing someone in war, the instrument that you use is really only one piece of -- not even the most important piece. i do think that we can make it clearer that what we are doing here is fighting a war. i think people have forgotten that. they assume that the drones, we are going to use them -- it is part of the war. you have to make the self- defense case within international law. i think it is right there for us to make. when you read amnesty international and other reports, their main complaint is that they don't know. they go from saying that they do not know to that they do know. you're not telling us why you do this, therefore you are doing it illegally. a leap of logic. the point is, transparency and oversight. that is true of any military action. you can get into spying issues and all that. the world has changed in terms of information. i cannot begin to articulate how we manage all that. on the using as a weapon of war, we should stick to traditional international norms. >> that goes into the authorization for the use of military force. the president has said he is interested in working with congress to modify it. what are your thoughts on how the aumf is still applicable today. given the fight from pakistan to other leaders and how congress can help the president craft a way forward. >> it is very much still applicable. it has gone through a fairly tortured history. originally, it was tied to those who perpetrated 9/11 and it morphed from some interesting court decisions that interpret it more broadly. we codified it in congress in 2011, it allowed us to be the groups that threaten us. al qaeda, taliban. it is within the self-defense context. i would say it is highly unlikely that we are going to modify the aumf. you change a punctuation mark in that thing, you are looking at 10 years worth of lawsuits for both sides. congress must have meant this. as if we move as one body. and that is the risk, if you change the aumf, that is why the white house was nervous when we did it in 2011. it was not that they wanted more or less authority, but if you change it you give rise to a variety of legal actions. it is probably going to stay where it is at. the larger question is, as al qaeda and groups move around, there are a letter different groups out there who affiliate in some way with the violent and nihilistic ideology of al qaeda. there are only a few that are actually plotting attacks against us. those are the ones we need to focus on. afghanistan prior to 9/11, a lot of them moved to pakistan, to yemen, somalia is a tougher question. we now have concerns about what is going to happen with aqim in mali and libya. the existing aumf give the president flexibility to follow those targets. modification would cause more trouble than it would solve. >> i would ask one more question than open to the audience. as the ranking member of the authorizing committee for defense, given your very appropriate comments about the effects of the shutdown and continued uncertainty on the defense and national security community, what is it that you and your committee are thinking of being able to do in this year and in this environment? to help on the strategic front and creating a pathway forward for the defense community? >> we are working on different issues, 1206, 1203, trying to give greater flexibility to the war fighter as they confront the challenges that they face. we are strongly supportive of the special operations command. that is a key piece of this ally development, building partner capacity. they refer to it -- preparation of the environment. what are you preparing it for, exactly? the answer is -- we are trying to prepare it so we do not have insurgencies. that is training security forces, making sure governance is happening. they do medical care in certain places, trying to build a local population. and a lot of that is what we have done in the philippines. the big war approach in this ideological struggle -- you think drone strikes have negative consequences. send in western troops to a country -- not a winner. trying to focus on that, building the partner capacity, using the asymmetric tools that we have. that is all great. as long as we are lurching from crisis to crisis and you have sequestration and the cr, as you know, it is tough. it is tough to function when you don't know how much money you're going to have. >> very true. we will have some mics going around. raise your hand, give us your name and affiliation. right up here. >> thank you for your understatement and restraint in describing the political situation. i would like to go back to the ideological struggle. 10 years ago, the defense science board released a report to donald rumsfeld about the war on terror. it said that we have to win the war of ideas, we are losing the war of ideas. during world war ii, we and the brits had great propaganda. during the cold war, reagan's comment to take down the wall. why are we derelict in having a propaganda campaign to discredit and do all the things we need to do? the only thing state is doing is trying to turn a couple youths off the internet. why is it impossible for us to mount the ideological campaign that is essential and would have big dividends for a small amount of money. >> a great point. to quote tom friedman, to underscore the idea we are not having success with the ideological struggle. with syria, assad, you have a lot of moderate democrats who want to overturn him and create a better style of government -- not western -- that is one of the challenges. we should not approach this by saying the world should be like us. the world does not want to be like us, we cannot blame them. it is not the same as the cold war. the cold war -- the way we won the cold war was here is your grocery store, here is our grocery store, we win. religion is much more central to the way they want to govern. trying to convince them to be like us is not going to work. in syria, you have got the moderate elements and then you have al qaeda. there are foreign fighters coming from all over the muslim world. they are coming on the side of al qaeda. if there is one single soul showing up in syria to fight for the free syrian movement, for freedom and democracy, i am unaware. we're not doing as much as we should. we have very little credibility. that makes it hard. as a member of congress, i can tell you how difficult it is when you do not have much credibility. in detail. for a variety of reasons, it was very interesting in egypt -- both sides were claiming that the other side had u.s. support. even the people who were opposed the muslim brotherhood, they were claiming that the u.s. was behind them. basically -- if it appears the u.s. is involved in something, it is by definition not credible. how do you do that, how do you handle that? i do not think we have been as creative as we need to be -- the most effective thing is negative campaign. al qaeda has killed more muslims than any movement in the history of the world. they are not good. the taliban -- we can show in iraq to some degree, we were successful. the iraq movement was driven by the fact that these violent people -- they are killing you, they are terrible. we need to use that more effectively. the real challenge is, in a transparent world, how do you do propaganda? we have not figure that out. propaganda is dependent upon probable deniability and the hidden hand. there are no hidden hands, that makes it more difficult. one of the big problems with the whole nsa thing -- people had this perception, a lot of the articles were flat wrong about what we were doing. but good luck convincing people of that. credibility is a challenge. the most effective way to do this is partner capacity. get moderate, credible elements, there are some groups doing this. within the muslim world, they have to be the messengers. if we are the messengers, it is not going to go over well. that is where we should focus our efforts, building partner capacity and delivering that message. >> very good. >> hi, james from the open society foundations. as we expand our efforts to build partner capacity, we might encounter the dilemma of democratic society to achieving stability. units that are engaging in questionable behavior, we might be losing the second challenge of the ideological battle. how do you strike that balance? where does congressional oversight like 1206 come into play? >> that is one of the single biggest problems we have. there is no government that is not going to have something that people can criticize. no matter who you are backing, there will be an argument that they are not open, free, fair. things like the leahy amendment, trying to limit our ability if you have situations where militaries are committing atrocities and we have to pull out. if a government is overthrown, we have to pull out -- mali, egypt we are wrestling with out a little bit. disengagement is the wrong approach. saying that if you do anything bad, we are out and we won't have anything to do with you. it is more harmful than helpful. we have to emphasize that we are trying to push these countries and allies to have greater respect for human rights and be more democratic. we have done that in a number of places. it is not perfect. the power of negative campaigning, if that is what people are concerned about, amnesty international came out with a huge study of our efforts. where is the amnesty international study of all the people al qaeda has killed and how indiscriminately they have gone after civilians? it is not even comparable. to say that they are not trying to do that -- you know, let's have a little balance. let's point out that the people we are fighting have killed far more innocent people and we have. they do it intentionally, as part of their plan. we have to emphasize the alternative. there is no perfect system. if we are held up to that standard. in the u.s., you have to only support perfect governments, that is a propaganda war you can never win. >> ok, right over here in the purple shirt. >> you expressed your belief that the killing of anwar al- awlaki was justified. how about the drone attack of his teenage son? >> i think that is why we need to be more transparent in explaining attacks. if an attack happens there needs to be at least a one paragraph justification. even in the case of al-awlaki, the administration has not released justification. i do not have any doubt that there are some drone strikes that were mistakenly made. that there -- for whatever reason, they misread the target, misread what they were doing, that is a problem. that is why transparency is important. i do not have an answer. i do not know the specifics of that attack. >> [indiscernible] the investigation that amnesty did? >> yes, we do get oversight, we do get briefed. i do not have the details of the different attacks. i have been briefed on them. that is a misconception. anyone in congress has access to all the information for why these attacks were done. part of my problem in presenting this is that is classified. even if i did know the answer, i could not give it publicly. that is where i think the administration can be more transparent. they can keep a lot of it classified, they can choose to release enough so that people know here is why we did it. and that there is a clear justification. the amnesty report, the biggest part of it is no transparency. was this attack justified? the administration said that it was, i believe them, but the public has not seen the information and is understandably skeptical. the oversight congress is able to exercise is helpful, but we cannot be transparent either. we cannot go out and talk about it. >> i would add that the u.n. report, coming out a few days before the amnesty report, hits transparency very hard. right here. >> i am from upi. i was wondering, in terms of -- you said some of the attacks might be mistaken. would you advocate for repercussions in those cases? there is critique that oversight would interfere with national security decisions, if you could comment on that. >> no, this is war. in war, mistakes are made all the time. as i said, civilians suffer in a war zone. they always do. part of the problem with some of thearguments on the unmanned vehicles campaign, we have tried to argue that this is different. they are more discriminating -- all of those things are true, it is somewhat better than a traditional military invasion. it is somewhat better than a cruise missile. it is still war, civilians are going to be vulnerable. we went through this in iraq, afghanistan. there are certain times where mistakes are made, we had the horrific mistake with the joint base lewis-mcchord soldier who killed civilians, that was a crime. he has been prosecuted and convicted. i do not see evidence of that, but it is war. the second part? >> [indiscernible] >> there is that balance to be struck. but the administration seems to have the attitude that we can share nothing. if we share information, it is going to make is for both. that is particularly ironic in this day and age, it comes out anyway. part of the justification for not talking to congress is that they do not trust congress not to leak it. but we read about in the paper from someone who leaked it from the administration. i understand sources, you want to protect that. but how does it make us more vulnerable to come out in one paragraph and say here is what we know about this guy, this is why we took this shot. it was in self-defense, this person is affiliated with this group, they were plotting these attacks. then you can say it is classified, but at least make the justification. president obama's speech, mr. brennan made a speech, jeh johnson, they have played this out. the administration thinks that they give a speech and then it is done. we explained it, leave us alone. it is a more constant process of justifying and explaining your actions. a message has to be repeated. as a campaign person, the moment when people are sick of our message is when it will penetrate to the people we are trying to reach. you cannot just sum it up, i told you, believe it, leave me alone. that is by greater transparency would be helpful. i think you can do it in a way that does not jeopardize national security. >> right here in the middle. >> pat with defense daily. we are at war, but you remind me of general giap's remarks about the u.s. involvement in vietnam. we may kill more of their soldiers, but eventually we will tire of the war. the fact of the matter is that budgets are down, sequestration is the law of the land. how much longer can the u.s. afford to be fighting all these wars against an enemy that will continue to respond as long as we are prosecuting these efforts? it seems that we have a limited amount of money, but our prosecution needs ever more amounts. >> in this case i disagree very strongly. how much longer can we prosecute this war? as long as it takes. this is not vietnam, some domino theory abstraction. this is a group of people who as we sit here today are trying to figure out how to kill as many of us as possible. we need to figure out how to stop them. the good news is, it is not quite as expensive as you describe. what we learned in the last decade, full-scale, 100,000 troop invasions are expensive and not a successful way to prosecute this war. if we build partner capacity, maintain intel, it is cheaper than people realize. we have built an infrastructure, by and large we have been successful in disrupting al qaeda cells. the larger part is the ideology and the metastization, different governments creating environments for the ideology. the specific problem of stopping terrorist groups that are plotting attacks against us has to be something that we cannot give up on. we cannot say we're going to stop trying to stop them and see what happens. i think we can do it in a cost- effective manner, we have to. it would be vastly more easy to do if we would get rid of this ridiculous isolationist nihilism that the federal government is awful and we must cut it. people say the tea party is running this country. grover norquist is running this country. he wants to shrink the government down so we can fit it in his bathtub, that is the ideology the republican house is governing on. we can argue about ideology, plenty of things wrong with the democratic party. when you consistently kick the crap out of the federal government by not funding it, threatening to raise the debt ceiling, that undermines our ability. i hope that at some point we will get over this. that makes it more difficult. it is too important a problem to walk away from. [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2013] [captioning performed by national captioning institute]

Transcripts For CSPAN U 20131028

Transcripts For CSPAN2 Key Capitol Hill Hearings 20140520

the presiding officer: any senator wishing to vote or to change a vote? if not, the ayes are 97, the nays are 0. the nomination is confirmed. under the previous order, the motion to reconsider is considered made and laid upon the table and the president will be immediately notified of the senate's action. the presiding officer: by unanimous consent, the mandatory -- the clerk will report the motion to invoke cloture. the clerk: cloture motion. we, the undersigned senators, in accordance with the provisions of rule 22 of the standing rules of the senate, hereby move to bring to a close the debate on the nomination of stanley fischer of new york to be a member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system. signed by 17 senators. the presiding officer: there are now two minutes of debate equally divided. without objection, all time has been yielded back. by unanimous consent, the mandatory quorum call has been waived. the question is: is it the sense of the senate that debate on the nomination of stanley fischer of new york to be a member of the board of governors of the federal reserve system, shall be brought to a close? the yeas and nays are mandatory under the rule. the clerk will call the roll. vote: vote: the presiding officer: are there any senators in the chamber wishing to vote or wishing to change their vote? if not, the yeas are 62, the nays are 35. the motion is agreed to. pursuant to the provisions of s. res. 15 of the 113th congress, there will be up to eight hours of postcloture consideration of the nomination, equally divided in the usual form. a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senior senator from florida. mr. nelson: madam president, i want to call to the attention of the senate the fact that there is a --. the presiding officer: the senate will be in order. the senior senator from florida. mr. nelson: thank you, madam president. there is a three-dimensional film that i had the pleasure of seeing at the air and space museum theater about one of the largest and, obviously, most successful military invasions in the history of the planet, and that was 70 years ago on june 6, 1944, what is known as d-day. the film is narrated by tom brokaw. he was a natural because he is well known for having written the book "the greatest generation" about the people who fought in world war ii. and the timeliness of this film, a documentary, the timeliness of it is that as we go from one generation to the next, the stories that were told by their grandfathers and their great grandfathers to their children are not necessarily being told to the next and younger generation. and what this film captivates in 3-d is to bring the plans, the operation, the logistics, the informity of the task -- enormity of the task of taking back continental europe from hitler's armies and how we drove that going on to the beaches at normandy with our partners, the canadians, the brits, the french, and how it was done, painfully, a lot of loss of life, particularly on utah beach, on omaha beach there was a lot less resistance on utah beach. and how the participants with us from those other nations met similar and just withering fire as they stormed on the beaches as well. how the night before the paratroopers dropped. and i remember when i was a young congressman sitting at the knee of congressman sam gibbons of tampa, florida, and he would tell us about the little clickers called crickets as the paratroopers dropped in, many of them, because of a mistaken landing where they landed and drowned in areas that had been flooded by the drones, but those who survived and then tried to regroup in the dark of night you would determine when you ran into somebody in the dark if they were friend or foe by this little clicker. we call them crickets. you click it and it sounds like a cricket. if they clicked two times and the response was back, they knew they were friend. otherwise, they had to protect their life. these are the stories that are not made up, they're real. these are the stories of the british pilots in gliders. how in the world in the dark of night could they bring those gliders in, landing them safely, getting out with those troops to go and secure the pegasis bridge, which was a critical crossing point that had to be taken from the germans. and story after story. how next to omaha beach where this fire was just bloody, how to the south of it was this cliff rising straight out with these enormous german guns on the top of it and how the u.s. army rangers scaled those rock cliffs straight up and then took on and silenced the german guns. these are the stories that we do not want to lose from one generation to another, and so this film in 3-d, narrated by tom brokaw, i want to commend to the senate family. it will be shown around the country now that it has opened on the west coast and here, and it is a wonderful educational lesson of american history of how we turned back an invader that was trying to change the world. and therefore, we were able to keep america free as well as our allies. madam president, i commend it to the senate, and i yield the floor and i would suggest the absence of a quorum. the presiding officer: the clerk will call the roll. quorum call: a senator: madam president? the presiding officer: the senior senator from into. mr. nelson: i ask the quorum call be lifted. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to a period of morning business with senators permitted to speak for up to ten minutes each. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the senate proceed to the following bills to award congressional gold medals en bloc, which were received from the house and are at the desk. h.r. 2939, h.r. 1209, h.r. 3658, and h.r. 685. the presid the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measures en bloc. mr. nelson: madam president, i ask unanimous consent the bills be read three times and passed en bloc and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table en bloc with no intervening action or debathe. de -- or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: i ask unanimous consent the senate proceed to the consideration of s. res. 4 452, which was submitted earlier today. the presiding officer: the clerk will report. the clerk: s. res. 452, to authorize testimony, documents, and representation in city of lafayette v. bryan benoit. the presiding officer: without objection, the senate will proceed to the measure. mr. nelson: madam president, i ask consent that the resolution be agreed to, the preamble be agreed to, and the motions to reconsider be laid upon the table with no intervening action or debate. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: madam president, i understand that s. 2363, introduced earlier today by senator hagan, is at the desk and i ask for its first reading. the presiding officer: the clerk will read the title of the bill for the first time. the clerk: s. 2363, a bill to protect and enhance opportunities for recreational hunting, fishing and shooting and for other purposes. mr. nelson: madam president, i now ask for its second reading and object to my own request. the presiding officer: objection is heard. the bill will be read for the second time on the next legislative day. mr. nelson: madam president, i ask unanimous consent that the injunction of secrecy be removed from the following treaty transmitted to the senate on may 20, 2014, by the president of the united states: convention on taxes with the republic of poland, treaty document number 113-5. i further ask that the treaty be considered as having been read for the first time, that it be referred with accompanying papers to the committee on foreign relations and ordered to be printed and that the president's message be printed in the record. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: i ask unanimous consent that when the senate completes its business today, it adjourn until:30 a.m. on wednesday, may 21, 2014. that following the prayer and pledge, the morning hour be deemed expired, the journal of proceedings be approved to date and the time for the two leaders be reserved for their use later in the day. that following any leader remarks, the senate be in a period of morning business until 12:15 p.m., with the time equally divided and controlled between the two leaders or their designees. and at 12:15 p.m., the senate proceed to executive session as provided for under the previous order. the presiding officer: without objection. mr. nelson: madam president, there will be one vote at 12:15 p.m. on the confirmation of the fischer nomination. following that vote, the senate will recess until 2:00 p.m. to allow for the republican caucus meeting. there will be up to five roll call votes related to nominations at 2:15 p.m:10 p.m.. the first vote in the series will be a roll call vote and we expect the remaining votes to be voice votes. madam president, if there is no further business to come before the senate, i ask that it adjourn under the previous order. the presiding officer: the senate is adjourned until 9:30 the presiding officer: without objection. mrs. boxer: thank you. mr. president, i rise today to urge senator reid to say a very urge senator reid to say a very >> mr. president i rise today to urge senator reid to say a very clear no to the request by 37 republicans that we create a new senate select committee on benghazi. i was really astounded to see 37 republicans many of whom have worked on this issue with me and senator menendez on the foreign relations committee just essentially make this request at a time when we have so much information already on benghazi and to spend the funds for this separate committee in addition to the one that the house has set up. to me it doesn't make any sense unless you believe as i do that this is all a political witchhunt. the attacks of september 11, 2012 and benghazi that took the lives of four americans including ambassador chris stevens, that was a tragedy. after such a tragedy we should all come together to make certain that something like this never happens again. but we shouldn't play politics. instead of focusing on how we prevent future attacks against u.s. personnel overseas instead of agreeing as they have had an opportunity to do to add more funding for diplomatic posts to protect their people the republicans want to turn the benghazi libya tragedy into a scandal. and let me tell you what i think is scandalous. the way they are handling this issue is a scandal and the american people are smart. i have seen recent polls. they get it. more than 60% and i will go back and look again, say it's all about politics. it's not about anything else. now i want to explain to the american people what we have done about this tragedy here. over the last 20 months these attacks have received unprecedented scrutiny and i have a chart that i want to share that explains it. mr. president we have had nine house and senate committee investigations on benghazi. we have had 17 hearings conducted. we have had 50, 50 briefings held. we have had 25 interviews conducted. eight subpoenas issued, 25,000 pages of documents reviewed. 25,000 pages of documents reviewed and six reports released. all of these little boxes mr. president that are represented here shows the various hearings, the various committees, the various briefings, the various documents and you look at this chart and you realize this is unprecedented. nine different house and senate committees have investigated the attacks. 17 hearings have been conducted. 50 briefings have taken place. 25 transcribed interviews have been it. eight subpoenas have been issued. more than 25,000 pages of documents have been reviewed and six congressional reports have been released. now have gone over these a couple of times this morning because i want to make sure that the record reflects all of this accurately. now in case that doesn't do enough mr. president to condense the people of this country what a witch hunts the republicans are on, i want to show you just a partial viewing of the materials. if you would excuse me while i bend down. that's just one. all of these binders are filled, filled with all the information that came out of these reports. so before people just get a peer inside oh we need more information, how about reading what we already have? stacks and stacks of information and here lies the reports and the testimony congress has already heard over the last 20 months but my republican friends would have you believe none of this happened. none of this happened. they are not satisfied with exhaustive reviews. by the way much of which were conducted by house republicans committee chairs. they walk away from their own work because they are playing politics. they should be proud of the work they did. but this isn't about that. it's about playing politics. it's about hurting people, hurting people. benghazi was a tragedy. we lost four beautiful patriotic americans. don't turn it into a scandal. now over in the house i guess this wasn't enough for them. i will take these down now. could you help me? this wasn't enough for them. 17 hearings 15 briefings eight subpoenas 25,000 pages of documents six reports, not enough for them. the house set up a new select committee and again 37 of my friends here, republican friendn select committee. that's right, two new committees to investigate what has been investigated, investigated, investigated. you don't need a degree in political science to know what a political witchhunt looks like. all you need is to look at this and you understand. this is a campaign tack taken by my republican colleagues to gin up their base ahead of the midterm election and by the way look ahead to 2016 where they are filled with anxiety at the thought that the former secretary of state rensin may be the democratic nominee. this is a campaign tactic. we know that republicans have been actively fund-raising off this tragedy. that's right, fund-raising off this tragedy. and when speaker boehner was asked about it all he did was waltz away from the question. i watched that interview. it was painful. they said aren't you going to start the fund-raising and he said we are just interested in the facts. aren't you going to start this fund-raising? we are just interested in the facts. answer the question. and we know it's a political witchhunt because before he was minding his p's and q's the house select committee chairman suggested the administration should be quote put on trial over benghazi. put on trial. we also know the house gop refused house minority leader nancy pelosi's offer to put an equal number of democrats and republicans on the panel. oh no, because it's a political witchhunt and they want total control over that committee. .. posts around the world, cuts that republicans actually boasted about making. and here in the senate we've tried to get through an embassy security bill by unanimous consent, and they objected. i don't know how many times. a couple of times. so you're not going to see an investigation into why the republicans thought it was wise to cut spending on embassy security, oh, no, they won't look at that. do you know that one of the colleagues -- one of the congressmen over there was asked by cnn whether the g.o.p. cut embassy security because a reporter was incredulous and this congressman said -- quote -- "absolutely. look, we have to make priorities and choices. you have to prioritize things." so clearly this particular member of congress was proud that they cut embassy security. but believe me, they're not going to be investigating that in their investigative committee. i'll tell you what else they're not going to investigate, mr. president. they're not going to investigate the tragedy and the scandal of more than 4,000 americans killed in the iraq war based on phony intelligence, 4,000 americans dead based on phony intelligence. i never heard one call for a select committee to find out why that happened. and that ignores the tens of and that ignores the tens of the tens of thousands of wounded with posttraumatic stress and all of the problems when our happening. and here is something else they won't tell you. between 1998 and 2013 there were at least 501 significant attacks against u.s. diplomatic facilities and personnel in 70 countries resulting in the deaths of 5806 people, including 67 americans. during the bush administration never 166 attacks which killed 116 people, including 18 americans. all of these attacks were terrible tragedies, but not one of them was exploited for political gain. why would we exploit the tragedy ? an american being killed for political gain, we could have done it. i was serving in the house back in 1983. i know that probably is close to when you were born, mr. president. [laughter] i was in the house in 1983 when a truck bomb exploded outside the marine barracks in beirut, lebanon that killed 241 american service members. the attack came just six months after 17 americans were killed in a bombing at the u.s. embassy in beirut. now, let me tell you about how that was handled by the then speaker tip o'neill when ronald reagan was president. tip o'neill conducted real oversight with the two parties working closely together. within two months the house stepped forward, democrats and republicans, produced a report that criticized the lax security around the barracks and called for new measures to keep the operating men and women in the military safe. that is the way that we should handle these things, not a kangaroo court, not a political witch hunt, not up party being -- of party-led investigation. let's face it. this is politics. it is thereby discrediting the obama administration and former secretary of state hillary clinton. i repeat, never in history, to my knowledge -- and i have gone back and back -- as in the political party done what they are doing at benghazi. and, the disinformation. no, the president kept saying it was because of the movie that was produced. the president stepped forward, and is first, and said, the attacks were an act of terror, his quotation. you never hear that -- he called it an act of terror. and i'll tell you what else they forgot to mention, that secretary clinton was the first person to convene an independent investigation of the attack. let me reiterate, the very first person to call for an independent investigation of the attacks and benghazi was secretary hillary clinton the independent investigation was non-partisan. it was called an investigation by the accountability review board. it was chaired by ambassador thomas pickering and admiral michael mullen. now, talk about a non-partisan team, i can attest that they are i'm privileged to sit on the foreign relations committee. i am the most senior member there, and i will tell you, these two gentlemen came forward and delivered their report. they talked very openly and honestly about the systemic problems that undermine security and benghazi, and guess what happened after that report? secretary clinton and the state department quickly accepted all 29 of those recommendations and put them into place. first secretary clinton and now secretary carry. so let me say this again. they're is a call for a political will chime because they want to hurt hillary clinton, and hillary clinton was the first person to call for an independent investigation that made 29 recommendations that she sought to put in place, and secretary carries completing the task. unbelievable. you won't hear that from my republican friends. but they want to make benghazi into a scandal. that is the scandal. playing politics with the tragedy. that is the scandal. now, the senate intelligence committee produced a bipartisan report based upon dozens of committee hearings, briefings, interviews. that is in here, too. and the highlights the need to a better response to security threats against diplomatic posts and personnel around the world. so, instead of going over all these reports, shyou how there are. this chart shows eastbound been of very clearly how many investigations. instead of focusing on protecting american serving abroad by carrying out the recommendations of these reports to my colleagues are obsessing over talking points prepared for a sunday tv show. now, let me tell you, there is nothing in the thousands of documents released that even remotely suggests an attempt to cover up what happened in magazines. as i said, the president said it was a terror attack. hillary clinton. [indiscernible] the investigation made 29 recommendations. this new select committee request is a sham it is a kangaroo court. it is a waste of taxpayer dollars. if senate republicans really want to help protect the men and women who bravely served our country overseas, they would stop objecting to our request to take up our bipartisan embassy security bill. the senate foreign relations committee passed s1386. guess who it is named after? chris stevens, john smith on tie ron woods and canned -- glendora the. is called the stevenson attwoods board the embassy security threat mitigation a personal protection act. he it was passed in december of last year. it was authored by senators menendez and corker, and i thank them. this bill will authorize spending for key measures recommended by the accountability review board, including security upgrades at our embassy, consulates, and other does -- diplomatic posts, especially high-risk posed. for security training, including language training for qaeda security environments. all under the hint director of the secretary of state to expand the program to help protect their diplomatic facilities and personnel. wind to the republicans keep objecting to this bill. you cannot with a straight face tell me that you really care how about our foreign personnel. whether you stand in the way of s1386. a bill to provide for enhanced security, a bill that was bipartisan, came out of the committee on which i served on the foreign relations. so, mr. president, i hope other colleagues will come down here and talk about this sham. we have so much to. we need to a brief the loss. their losses deep, very deep. but to turn that into some investigation, some witch hunt is not the right thing to do, for their memories. the right thing to do for their memories is to pass this embassy security bill. you know, i don't know how to say it, but it does not cost money to make up chris to your home, to your buildings. here in the capitol we protect and upgrade these beautiful buildings because of the history. we have to upgrade buildings. that does not come free. it does cost money. and yet house republicans are bragging that they cut embassy security. so, i'm going to talk about the salon because i care so deeply about making sure that our personnel are safe all of the world. and until they allow this bill to go durbin i just really question of the deep concern some that are being expressed by the republican. oh, they need yet another committee to get to the bottom of benghazi. we know what happened. it was a terror attack on a facility that needed more protection. okay? and how do we make sure that does not happen again? we had more than 500 attacks on major attacks on our facility since 1998, between 1998 and 2011. more than 500 tax. it never has anyone of any party tried to a play politics with it and the reason i am so -- shall we say -- upset with it is because it is the wrong way to move forward bill -- people look at us some wonder if we can get anything done. we have worked so well together. we did a highway bill, worked so well across the aisle. why don't we do what we did when tip o'neill was speaker and work well across the aisle on foreign policy. when i was coming up foreign-policy basically stopped at the water's edge. we respected the president, whoever it may become a republican, democratic. and if we had a critique, we expressed it, but we did it in a way that was, if i can just say, less partisan. so i will leave you with chart and just -- this chart says it all. we have investigated this. we have looked at it. we have presented hearings and briefings and interviews. subpoenas, documents, issue reports. we don't need to spend money on another committee because someone is afraid of hillary clinton's candidacy. just deal with it. don't try to revise history. she was the first person to call for an independent investigation and begin to put the pieces and apply that would in fact make sure this did not happen again. some say you care about embassy security. well, and the stand up and oppose a bipartisan bill that would make sure we make the requisite improvements to our facility. and so, i hope that harry reid, our leader, will not say yes to a committee that is nothing but a political witch hunt, and i will continue to condemn -- come down to the floor to discuss this issue and debate this issue if it is necessary to do so. thank you very much, mr. president, and i yield the floor. i do not the absence of a quorum. >> thank you very much. i would like to discuss the. [inaudible] on benghazi. i think senator boxer cam on the floor this morning to talk about the investigations and all the things that have been done to find out about what happened in and gusty, number one, to those serving today. you are definitely in our thoughts and prayers, and my advice to the demonstration is, get those votes out as quick as you can because this thing is going downhill quickly. i feel like the security environment and lived -- libya is deteriorating as i speak. let me, if i can, set the stage for my concerns. one, i think most people on this side of the aisle, right or wrong, believe that the names were changed. this whole attitude toward finding out what happened in benghazi would be different. in the bush administration secretary rice, we would be really on fire as a nation to find out how the president could have said two weeks after the attack, mention the video as the cause of the attack. all the information coming from the intelligence community to the white house and others, there was never protests that if secretary rice had gone on the national news or mr. hadley or john bolton, the you an ambassador, u.s. ambassador in the united states had gone on television five days after the attack and told the story about the level of security -- we believe there was a protest caused by video, not a coordinated terrorist attack. there would have been a definite different approach about this issue. and that, to me, is very sad. you may not agree with that observation, but almost everybody over here, i think, believes that. i know mr. zucker. he said he would not be bullied. no one is asking any outlet to be bullied, but i have some questions i want cnn to answer or somebody that would answer questions that i think are very relevant. so what is the state of play? as far as the senate goes we have had the u.s. senate select committee on intelligence issue a report january 15th, 2014. i think it did a very good job covering airline. they did not have jurisdiction over the state department, so their report was limited. there was a minority report and saw the report by republicans taking some issue with some of the findings of the bottom line was the senate until committee in a bipartisan fashion look at benghazi and said that it could have been presented by prevented. that is something to be positive about. the armed services committee, they have done nothing. we have not issued any report. this is the report looking at the department of defense responsibility. looking at the state department behavior that night. we have had hearings, but the relevant committees have not issued reports. the homeland security committee in september 30th 2012, they did a good job talking about homeland security role in benghazi. a very good report, but a lot has happened since then. i want people in the country to know and in the senate to the reason i won a select committee in the senate, two of the committee's i participated in this report in the bush administration. we had some serious system breakdowns when it came to detainee's in u.s. custody. senator mccain issued this report. i thought that was important to get to the bottom of system failure in the bush administration, but i would argue that for dead americans are worthy of report. and we have not had one. so there are a lot of things that could be done, should be done that have not been done. what would i like to find out about benghazi that we do not know? this is the accountability review board and internal investigation by the state department. to find and lead this investigation appointed by secretary clinton. this thing has more holes in it and swiss cheese. then missed a lot. that did not talk to secretary clinton or ambassador rice. in this report they talk about the reason that dr. stevens was in benghazi is that there were looking at closing the consulate in benghazi in december. i finally got to talk with one survivor after about 18 months of trying and found from that survivor the person charged with security on the night of the attack, they have renewed that lease in july for year. that makes no sense. they just for the the lease in july. so not by any means an exhaustive review benghazi. this is a statement, read out on september the tenth 2012 the did before the attack. this is a readout of the president's meeting with senior administration officials on our present security posture on the 11th anniversary of september september 11th. apparently the present to the president has a meeting in the white house with all our national security folks to talk about what we can expect on september the 11th because it was the 11th anniversary of 9/11. during the briefing the president and the principles discussed specific measures for taking in the homeland related to attacks as well as steps taken to protect u.s. persons and facilities abroad as well as for protection. that one simple question, didn't bring that video? if not one out? based on the statement is a reassuring statement. there were not on top of it when it came to libya. i want so find out if that had anything to do with the depth of -- death trap called benghazi. this is the securities and -- security situation in benghazi pre 9/11. there was a request for additional security which was denied. our security footprint was very light. we had an agreement with the militia and benghazi that was supposed to be our primary action team, libyan militia that proved to be less than reliable. on april the sixth and a lady was thrown over the fence of the u.s. post and benghazi. did the president know about this? secretary : knew about this. no one has ever told us that the president was aware of this. on june 6 alliant to buy large idd destroyed a part of a post. they commissioned a study of some kind of review. where is it? did the president know about these attacks? on june 11th 5 days later the british ambassador motorcade is attacked very close to the benghazi facility. u.s. personnel don't have the british ambassador. on july the ninth request from ambassador stevens for additional security, no response . in responding say no additional support needed. sixteen persons special forces national guard team that was ready to volunteer for an extra year to help our folks in benghazi. the state department said no thanks. attacked four times and they finally closed out the lead town . lieutenant-colonel woods is a national guard soldier, helping security during a five security team investigation. instead of being extended. volunteered to stay for additional year. august 16th, the most damning of all, there is a cable that was sent from benghazi by ambassador steve is telling the people in washington that the conflict could not withstand a court iter is to attack. this is on 16 august. basically begging for additional security. that is the state of play, the background in terms of security. these are statements by the original security officer asking for additional security. it was so frustrated by the response he has received in washington he said the following for me, that taliban is on the inside of the building. what he was talking about is that the people in washington tend to be completely deaf as to his needs for additional security. the people in washington were working against him and he was very worried about what would happen if there was an attack and believed that one was coming. this is lieutenant colonel woods at utah national guard special forces that left in august. here is what he said. it was instantly recognizable to me that it was a terrorist attack, mainly because of my prior knowledge there. almost expecting the tactic,. we were the last flag flying. it was a matter of time. this had gone up department of defense channels as well as department of state. so that is the history of the security situation in benghazi. now, the people at cnn, my democratic colleagues, anybody and everybody, please explain to me how the 16th of september, five days after the attack, susan rice, a u.s. ambassador to the united nations, was chosen to appear on five sunday talk shows to talk about the attack in benghazi and other facilities and assure you, she was worried about what was going to happen with the questions regarding benghazi because that is where we had four people killed. here is what she said about the level of security 16 september. well, first of all, we had a substantial security presence with our personnel in the consulate in benghazi. i have a question. who told her that? nothing could have been further from the truth. and you looked at the history of the security footprint in benghazi there were begging and pleading about people and libya to have more help and everything was denied. it was to the point that the person in charge of security felt like the taliban were inside the building here in washington. lieutenant colonel wood said it is just a matter of time. we were the last flag flying. and on 16 august before the september 11th attack you get a cable going back from the ambassador chris stevens to washington saying we cannot defend this compound against a coordinated terrorist attack. those are the facts. well, first of all, we had a substantial security presence in the consulate in benghazi. a simple question. who told her that? who briefer about security in benghazi? the person who told her that needs to be fired. because they are completely incompetent and they lied to her if she made this up, she needs to resign because nothing could have been further from the truth if she just made this up to make the administration look good in light of all of the other evidence about security, then she is not an honest person when it comes to conveying national security incidents. so please, after all these investigations, after all these hearings, can somebody tell me where susan rice got this information? how could she conclude based on what we know now that we had a substantial security presence with a person now in the consulate in benghazi? further stating, we obviously did have a sound security presence. she said this on abc and fox. if you listen to her on 16 september, you would believe we were well-prepared for this attack with security in a reasonable fashion. if anybody had looked at the actual record, the information available to our own government in our own files, you could not have said that honestly. i am sure this was a good thing to say six weeks before an election. the problem is, it is not remotely connected to the truth, and to this state nobody can answer my question, where did she received the information about the security level in benghazi? she has never been interviewed by anybody 20 months later. why was she chosen? if john bolton had taken secretary rice to talk about a consulate not under his control blood under her control people would want to know where it was the secretary of state. now, ambassador rise was a you in ambassador. she had no responsibility to council that security. the person responsible for consulate's security and our footprint and libya was secretary clinton. i have always wondered why they chose her. to this day no one has answered that question. but here is what susan rice said 12 / 13 / 2012. secretary clinton had originally been asked. she had an incredibly grueling week dealing with the protests around the middle east in north africa. i was asked. i was willing to do so. it was not one i had planned for the weekend originally, but i do not regret doing that. she further said she had no regrets about what she told the american people. can i ask for five more minutes? you are next? ahead. one minute. okay. to be continued. i cannot do this justice and 15 minutes, but here is what i am suggesting. if it is true that the secretary of state could not go on television and talk about a conflict under her control to talk about how four americans died at that consulate, the first ambassador in 33 years because she had a grueling week, if that is true -- and i don't really believe that it is, but if it is whitney to know because that will matter to the country as we go forward. if it is not true why would she say it? to be continued. there is so much about this incident that we don't know that makes no sense to me. i am not going to give up until i can tell the families what i believe to be the truth and what i have been told is nowhere near the truth. with that i yield. >> voters went to the polls today in kentucky, georgia, and pennsylvania for primary elections. in kentucky senate majority leader mitch mcconnell is facing tea party challenger not in it and the republican primary. we will bring you speeches from senator mcconnell, as republican challenger, and the democratic nominee. election results from georgia and pennsylvania. that is later tonight here on c-span2. >> if you go back and look at coolidge, he was a conservative hero. his tax rate was a gold standard tax rate that we saw, 25 percent was what he got the top rate down to. he fought like crazy. it started, remember, with wilson in the 70's. that was an epic battle. when you go with what all the socialists said about coolidge in washington, how cold the was, you want to remember that they were probably also from families that endorsed different policies . his father had a different model of president. and let's get them, go active, bully pulpit presidency. she said the looked as though he had leaned on the -- been weaned on a pickle. he was from new england. farmers don't talk a lot or wave their arms about because account might kick them. it was temperamental. of temperament. he was a shy person. he also had a political purpose. he knew that if he did not talk a lot people would stop talking. of course, it president or political leader is constantly bombarded with requests. his silence was his way of not giving in to special interest. >> author and columnist will take your calls, e-mails, and tweeds on taxes, depression-era presidents and current fiscal policy. in-depth alive sunday for three hours at noon eastern on c-span2 book tv. >> the starting right here with this mandate, all of this stairwell and banister that uc here were the original banisters and steps from when clare -- clara barton was here. walking exactly on the same stairs. this we found in the attic. the envelope for a stationary set, military portfolio, as it is called on here. clara used to these as a fund-raising product while the civil war was going on. you can see how nice and fancy engraving work is on this. it also lists what was in the get. she had tied this together to hang up for when she was out trying to sell these. so she had a booth at the market and could hang this up, and these people could come by where she was and take a look at what she had there. >> the life and work american red cross founder clara barton said it -- saturday at 10:00 a.m. eastern. we will visit the clara barton missing soldiers of this museum. then live at 11:00 your calls and tweaks. part of our three day memorial day weekend of american history tv on c-span three. >> white house press secretary jay carney briefed reporters today, answering questions about delays in the veterans' health care system, a chinese military hacking, and u.s. relations with russia. >> on another topic, has ralph nader given any kind of an update? >> what i can tell you about mr. nader is that he has been dispatched to the va at the secretary's suggestion. a suggestion that was endorsed strongly by the president. the president is focused on the review that secretary shinseki has announced and has launched a of the allegations regarding waiting lists and disclosure, wedding less and wait times when it comes to getting benefits and services. i can tell you that robb is on his way to phoenix to visit the phoenix veterans affairs medical facility and to meet with its acting director. as part of this review the president looks forward to the results, both of their review and of the independent investigation that is under way and is being conducted by the inspector general. >> what is the president's expectation in terms of the timetable of the review? >> i would refer you to the kiffin -- cave -- va for a timetable. the president's expectations for it to be a comprehensive and for >> we refer you for questions. >> and how would you respond to the house majority leader, eric cantor, who said earlier this morning that -- i'm paraphrasing here -- the president seems to keep learning about the scandals . >> again, that is a product of my lack of clarity yesterday. the reporting inaccuracies. was responding specifically to a cnn report that people learned when they either saw it on cnn or heard the report about the president had been discussing these issues and pressing congress to tackle these issues since he was a candid it for this office. and, again, we can go over the record of support for veterans says president obama took office, the request for additional funding that the president has made every year that he has been in office for the va, the expansion of services that he has directed to take place through the va on his watch and the overall commitment that he has to our veterans. i am happy to go through that record with you again, if you like. in know, our focus on -- the president's focus is not cleared rejoinders, it is on getting results and finding out exactly what happened in making sure people are held accountable for any malfeasance or misdeeds that may have taken place. before we know that we have to wait for the investigations, which is the right way to go about it. >> the president still plans to comment on its in? >> i don't have any updates on the president's schedule. >> the business, the no if trade limits were discussed this morning? >> the president had an excellent meeting with ceos from a variety of companies. i think 11 all told, foreign and domestic, focus on his select u.s.a. initiative that is and that encouraging companies to invest here in the united states where the economy as a starter that in many places around the world where interview prices are low and where we have a highly productive work force. that has been the focus so far this week of the president's time and attention and will continue to be as he proceeds through the week, and he will make that a focus of his remarks at cooperstown on thursday because tourism is an important source of foreign and direct investment in the united states. i do not have a rita of the topics of conversation that will be discussed today except to say that the president sounded excellent and he found a lot of receptivity among this group because this is a group of individuals to represent corporations to have other brought back operations in the united states or have made new investments in the united states reflecting a trend that is positive for the u.s. economy and u.s. workers. yes? >> one has invested in north carolina. what kind of message do you sense to foreign business, and not just the american who will bring back jobs, but also the other ones? what kind of message? >> we are in global economic competition, and the president believes that we in the united states have to do the best job that we can of making clear to multinational corporations and foreign corporations that the united states is a very attractive place to invest, to build, and to hire. he absolutely welcomes foreign direct investment. it is a piece of what drives our economy, and the kind of investment that we seek from foreign companies is the kind that brings high paying, quality jobs to the shores of the united states, and that is good for the american economy and american workers. yes? >> on this topic, senator levin produced a bill this morning that would. [inaudible] is that a bill that will reach the president's desk? >> we have not obviously reviewed in the legislation at this point yet. on a general principle that we should have a tax cut that does not reward companies for moving their operations and jobs overseas but instead encourages them to invest here in the united states and to build businesses and jobs here in the united states, one that is reflective of the president's budget, and he encourages congress, especially republicans in congress, to approach tax reform in a way that keeps this issue very much high on the priority list. we need to reform our tax code in a way that it makes investment in the united states attractive, creating incentives for companies to invest here instead of a tax cut where, as currently exists, there are loopholes that companies can exploit to avoid the taxes that they owe on u.s. and come. unfortunately, we have had a lot of resistance that proposition, we hope that it will change their opinion. alexis? >> how does the president wants the function as he conducts a review so that -- >> as he always has, respectfully and professionally. >> so that observers are not concerned that the president is putting. [inaudible] while the ig is under way. >> we will let others evaluate the politics of this or who is injecting politics and in. the president sent him over there because he is a professional and is one of his most trusted advisers, and he expects rob to work with the secretary and others at the senator graham on this review so that we can get to the bottom of these issues, find out what happened, take remedial action where necessary and hold people accountable where necessary. >> if the president. [inaudible] and start to the same individuals that the ig wants to interview, is there a perception that the white house is trying to do more than review but may be trying to influence the outcome? >> well, i would refer you to the va and the ig. obviously the va has called for, requested the independent inspector general's investigation, and i am sure they have no interest in any way doing anything but helping to move forward and get to a conclusion. the president is very interested in finding out what happened and instituting and completing this review that secretary shinseki initiated. that is why he has one of his most trusted the visors to be assigned temporarily to the va to take on this assignment and to help the secretary conduct the review. but we are very interested and, from the president on down, the completion of both these inquiries, both the review and the ig investigation. yes, sir. >> a few days out from the presidential election for this coming weekend. there was a report issued saying that the rest of the country has a collection mechanisms in place, but in the eastern and southern areas, widespread intimidation of polling workers, not free and fair campaigning. at this point is there any way in russia avoids sectoral sanctions? >> i certainly don't have any announcement to make on potential additional sanctions at this time. we have made clear that if russia chooses to undermine the may 205th elections in ukraine there will be consequences, additional costs that will be imposed not just by the united states but our allies and partners, as they have also made clear. what i would point you to is that the osce as far as said that in the vast majority of the country they anticipate that the election will go forward and will be free and fair. there is no question that separateness have taken steps that seek to undermine the effective carrying out of the election, and we call on russia to use its influence to persuade those separatists to stand down and to allow the ukrainian people to express their will freely. what i would also note, and i think others would note, including those from international bodies, is that it is fully possible for ukraine to conduct an election, even as there are some relatively small pockets of problem areas. that is not to say that we condone or count the kind of activities a separate to seven days stand in violation of the ukrainian constitution, ukrainian law. and it the efforts the russian 78 stand in supporting the separatists. what we hope is that russia will use its influence in a positive way to allow these elections to take place so that the ukrainian people can choose for themselves to their president will be, and in the meantime, as they have already been doing, the ukrainian government has began the process of engaging ukrainians from across the country, including in the east and the south in round-table discussions about constitutional reform and changes that can be made to end our regions and create more autonomy for regions as it relates to the center of the country here which is positive and is kept their word in conducting those round tables and holding those dialogues. i think, that, again, since a positive signal about the intentions of the central government in this process and their willingness to resolve these issues peacefully in a way that is consistent with ukrainian law and with the territorial integrity of ukraine >> the areas where they have had trouble, have not seen any sign of the russians during with their repeatedly called. >> i did not say that. in terms of using their influence -- we have yet to see any significant sign that russia is effectively persuading separatists to vacate buildings, for example, return property to a local and regional governments and to allow the elections to take place. there have been statements out of moscow relating to the disposition of russian troops of the border of ukraine that if carried out would be positive. we have yet to see any indication that russian troops are withdrawn from the ukrainian border, but we will monitor that closely and certainly hope that the statements of today and yesterday from president putin and the russian defense minister and up being more than misstatements. but restage actual movement by russian troops away from the ukrainian border, that would be positive. >> a couple of things on va before i take on the other issues. yesterday you said support for the goals of this legislation will be before the house this week, the veterans managing accountability act. shinseki is against that. says he has all the authority he needs to punish and deal with those who do not perform to the standards. does this indicate the white house and the secretary disagree on what needs to be done as far as accountability within that va? >> what i said yesterday and what remains true is that the administration shares congress is concerned about ensuring a responsibility and effectiveness at the va and is working to address the problems that have surfaced, and we will closely look at the bill that you mentioned. as i said, we share the goals and will work with congress to address concerns we have with the details of the bill. the overall issue. >> the president has already directed the maximum use of the existing authorities when it comes to making sure people were held accountable and also that they are assessing whether or not they need additional tools. we think this is an important issue. we share the concerns that are at the heart of this proposed legislation. we also will work with congress to address, you know, some of the concerns we have, but the overall issue of making sure that there are tools in place to hold people accountable at the va is one that we share. >> you have mentioned many times in order for these investigations to succeed, he said that he sent a letter right after the news reports in phoenix service urging the va tests and a cease and desist order about the destruction of any documents related to this investigation eight days before the va actually said that order out. he is concerned there and other places where investigations are under way that that va is slow to tell people off, preserve and tell the facts can be determined and accountability can be assessed and carried out. we will use it on behalf of the president that the va needs to move on this faster and in every case there is an investigation, season desist order or not to not destroying evidence and maintaining everything that the investigators needs to be done for? >> first of all, i am not aware of a specific order being referenced. it is certainly our view and secretary shinseki view that the va and their offices a to cooperate and will cooperate with both the review that secretary shinseki initiated and the investigations the ig has launched, and that is absolutely appropriate. the president wants to know what happened. the president wants to make sure that any bad behavior is serviced and that people are held accountable if the problems and the allegations that we have seen out there proved to be true. >> it appears that president -- evidence is being destroyed. these say these investigations -- >> if that is true that will be, i expect my focus both of review and an independent investigation i don't know that to be true. i know secretary gates reacted immediately to begin the review. he suspended, as i mentioned, the three people in the phoenix office, the phoenix facility. we have dispatched the white house deputy chief of staff to assist in a review there, i think, which reflects the president's focus and concern about this. the secretary himself called for the ig to launch an independent investigation, so we eagerly await the results of both inquiries and, again, the president expects results and expects the information that he and the rest of the administration needs in order to ensure that we are taking all the necessary steps to provide the best service that we can't our veterans and to hold accountable any individuals who might have acted poorly. >> tonight on c-span2 i look at efforts to stop the spread of the deadly va virus. house affairs hearing in u.s. relations with mexico, and later a hearing on how medicare reimburses hospitals. tonight we will be bringing your results from key primary elections in kentucky, georgia, and pennsylvania including concession and victory speeches from kentucky where said minority leader mitch mcconnell face a primary challenge in his reelection bid. those beaches bless your reaction coming up live tonight here on c-span2. mers is a viral respiratory illness first reported in saudi arabia in 2012. the world health organization estimates that 30% of mers cases are fatal. three people in the united states have been diagnosed with the disease so far. .. the arabian peninsula right now is significantly affected by the virus. we have seen a lot of cases throughout the region. there seems to be a link with camels, although that is not completely pinned down. that. >> why would that be the source? where else could the source come from? >> it's interesting. when viruses get into t

Transcripts For CSPAN Washington This Week 20121216

gold. >> as all of us in this country were starting to see people coming out and talking about their experiences, this phenomenon, that so many of us had experienced in one way or another, and had no words for. other than adolescence, other than growing up. we finally -- people were starting to stand back and say, hold on. this isn't actually a normal part of growing up. this isn't a normal rite of passage. i think there was a moment where there was a possibility for change. and director lee hirsch and i decided to start the film out of that feeling that voices were kind of bubbling up. coming up to the surface to say this isn't something that we can accept anymore. a normal part of our culture. >> film maker cynthia loewen has followed up her award winning film by gathering essays and personal stories in "bully." hear more tonight at 10:00 on "after words" on c-span2 and more book tv online, and like us on facebook. next chiefs of staff to the governors of virginia, colorado, and oklahoma talk about the fiscal issues of their states and how they're dealing with them. topics included medicaid costs, pension systems, and infrastructure projects. they also answered questions from the audience. hosted by the u.s. chamber of commerce this is just under an hour. >> thank you very much. thank you, everyone, for being here this morning. especially those who traveled to be with us. it's nice to close the doors from the rest of washington and the fiscal cliff debate for a little while and talk about fiscal challenges elsewhere. whether it's a good news or bad news, at least it gives us an opportunity to talk about something a little bit different than the news of the day in this final two weeks, i think, before hopefully congress finds an opportunity to either avoid or move or solve some of the fiscal cliff issues and fiscal challenges that we face. and thank you for dick gravich and the work of the panel and the commission he co--led. there are copies of that report that were available when you came in. it's an excellent document that i really encourage everyone to take a close read. it's filled with good analytics in terms of what's going on on the state level. to help us understand. and i fully agree, dick, with your comments earlier about the disconnect. here in washington, obviously, we're facing our own serious challenges. and sometimes those challenges seem so overwhelming that the notion of adding in the layer of complexity to think about the consequences outside of washington in the state legislatures and the governors' offices and in the states themselves may seem overwhelming. we are fortunate to some extent, there is some work that gets done by the congressional budget office as legislation moves through the process but i agree it's often inadequate and often comes too late in the game. and doesn't weigh on policymakers' minds successful. we're fortunate -- sufficiently. we're fortunate to talk not only about in theory but to hear really specifics from the practitioners. from folks who are on the ground, who do know what it's like. both in the political context and in the policy context of what it's like in the different states. and so let me just briefly outline how we'll spend the next hour. i'll stop in about a minute talking. i'm going to give each of the -- i'll introduce each of the chiefs of staffs for five seconds each. give them a few minutes to share their views. three or four minutes on the floor will be yours to talk about whatever the issues are that you think are most important in your state, to describe your own successes and your own challenges and i would like to ask dick to respond. having studied so many states in addition to these three, to compare and contrast the comments that he's heard with the research that he conducted. and then we'll have a brief discussion for a little while. i'll pose a few questions and then we can open it up to the floor for a broader conversation. and so with that, let me just note who's here with us. to my right, martin kent, came up from richmond, he's the chief of staff to governor bob macdonald. to denise northrop came from state of oklahoma where she is chief of staff to governor mary phalen and roxanne white is joining us from the great state of colorado where she's chief of staff to governor john hicken looper. and so their full bios are on the pamphlets and nare all very accomplished professionals in their careers. i'm going to ask roxanne to start and we can come down this way. >> great. first, thank you for the report. i think it provides a good framework for all of us as states to continue to look at the challenges facing us. we have been engaged in pension reform in colorado. our pension fund is about 69% solvent. we did major reform in the last administration. and we are now in court trying to defend that reform. our pension costs by 2020 will go to 22%. and so to give you a sense of how far behind we were as a state, if we lose in court and the battle is whether or not we as a state have a right to ratchet down the colas for our state employees, then we could see a need to go to 25% of compensation by 2020. so it's fairly important that we are able to get through the litigation in terms of the ratchet down of what we are trying to do. we are also very concerned about medicaid costs. our medicaid costs are about 20% of our budget. growing at a rate of 8% per year. we are very engaged in putting everyone in medicaid into affordable care collaboratives and starting to see some significant cost savings from those efforts. we are also one of the six states that is moving full speed ahead on the exchange. we believe that the exchange offers the opportunity for two things. one, it was largely supported by our small businesses in colorado as a way to help them actually be able to afford insurance for their employees. and we had a very bipartisan effort to move forward with our exchange. so we're looking at cost containment there. and how we really get everyone into a managed care type situation. we have 17% of our population that drives 67% of our medicaid costs. and it is almost exclusively our aging population and our disabled population. so really focusing in on -- because we have such a disproportionate number of small -- small percentage of people who are driving our costs of really how do we con taken -- we contain our costs? we are moving out of a payment per service to a payment overall for clients. and really bringing down our costs that way. final thing we are doing in terms of local government is our department of local affairs is working with our local municipalities on consolidations. trying to get our fire departments to consolidate. our police departments to consolidate. at the local level. not forcing localities to do that but prior to becoming governor, mayor hickenlooper was able to consolidate in the metro denver region our fire departments and our pieces of our police departments and pieces of our road improvement. and so really saying to our local municipalities and one of the first executive orders we did was no unfunded mandates to the municipalities. so we're doing our part of not trying to pass on additional costs. but you have to do your part of really trying to control your costs and think about working with your neighbors at the same time. because we think our municipalities are in serious trouble. the last thing that we had really been doing is we have had over the last two years a 22.7% increase in personal income. we believe a great deal of that is one-time money. so we've been working with our legislature. we've gone from 0% reserves in 2011 in colorado to 8% reserves overall in our budget of 5% unrestricted reserve as a state. and really working with our legislature that what we see as one-time money must only be spent on one-time costs. and we are engaged in that fight on a daily basis with trying to create a better sense of how do we fund things? and how do we look at when revenues returning, not just throwing the barn doors wide open and spending everything but having a state start to have some reserves. so that's where we're at in colorado. >> can i ask one quick followup question? why is that money one-time money? where is it coming from? >> we're seeing capital gains that we believe very strongly is one time. so looking at things like we can do water quality improvement. we can do deferred maintenance and local municipality projects. but we really don't think it's sustainable revenue yet. >> thanks. denise? >> when governor phalon took office we didn't have the shortfall that some other states did. but we still didn't have the best budget picture. but her promise as governor during the campaign was to create the best business environment possible. create more and better jobs. and to make government smaller, smarter and more efficient and we jumped right in and did that with things like tort reform and workers comp reform. agency consolidation. i.t. consolidation. some of those common sense approaches that you wish washington would do more often that we don't see. but those are things that are saving us millions of dollars. our i.t. consolidation alone is estimated to save $180 million over the course of the governor's term and potentially next term. we also in the same situation as colorado had $2 in our rainy day fund and then just two short years we've moved that to over $500 million. when we took office the governor likes to say we were operating an eight-track bureaucracy in an ipod world. so it's really just thinking about how we do things smarter, more efficiently, and using the technology and the resources that we have to make things more efficient and more cost effective for state government. in terms of pension reform, we also had a $16 billion unfunded liability that we reduced by $5 billion just by simply passing a law that says we couldn't actually pass a cola that was not funded. ours wasn't challenged in court fortunately. so we do -- we're looking at more pension reform. we have seven pension systems in the state. they all are operated by independent pension boards that have different -- different rules, different structures. looking at the potential of having them under one board that monitors all of the pensions so that you have across the board unanimity in those. governor fallin, i know governor hickenlooper and governor mcdonald believe firmly that the states are the laboratory for innovation. and the way that you're going to glean? some of the most innovate of ways we use our resources. we talked about infrastructure earlier. one thing we've done in the state of oklahoma is our transportation secretary and odot, we took down 9,000-foot bridge in oklahoma city. and to get rid of structurally deficient and obsolete bridges. so over the next 10 years, we will go from the bottom in the country in terms of structurally deficient and obsolete bridges to the top in terms of creating that infrastructure in our state. and we're literally recycling beams and saving millions of dollars by something that would have just been thrown out under normal circumstances. and it's the only project like that of its kind in the country that we're pretty proud of. the other thing that we're doing, roxanne's governor, governor hickenlooper, tom mentioned before the third bucket of energy. governor fallin and governor hickenlooper created an initiative to convert state fleets to c.n.g. and governor mcdonell as well is supportive. we went to detroit with a group of 13 governors signed on to an m.o.u. and we had -- convert our fleets to c.n.g. and produce a fleet vehicle and give us that ability to do that efficiently. we'll give you the market. we'll put up 5,000 cars that we commit to buying. and we're going to save our states dollars by the fuel efficiency. but we also have the added bonus of creating jobs in our state. and then c.n.g. producing state. as well as energy independence. it doesn't make a whole lot of sense to be buying energy from countries that are not necessarily favorable to us and not stable as well. and we've got all the energies that we need. we've seen the reports that we could be energy independent by 2020 in this country. and we need to be doing everything we can to boost that energy production and my state in colorado, and then several other energy-producing states. the innovation is coming from our business centers in the state and across the country. and the more we can do to use and find ways to expand that energy we are going to be better off for it. all that being said, oklahoma has been second in job growth since governor fallin has been in office. we've had a 2.7% increase. we're one of the lowest states in unemployment. we've had the fourth highest increase in per capita income. and third in manufacturing job growth. so we feel like the things that we've been doing in office are producing those but the fiscal cliff is going to have devastating effects on us. we have rejected medicaid expansion. it would cost our state $475 million through 2020 which is just unsustainable for us to carry on those costs. without facing major cuts in education, infrastructure, transportation, public safety. and the air space and defense industry in our state as well is looking at the potential of losing 16,000 jobs if we go off the cliff and see questation occurs. so some things potentially that are not so good. >> to follow up on the fleet issue, is that going forward? >> absolutely. >> what did detroit say? >> absolutely. we put the r.f.p. out there. and we have -- i'm not the expert on this -- we have a half ton truck out there now. we're looking for a three quarter ton truck. there are fleet vehicles and we're looking for different type fleet vehicles that are under production. but we actually are purchasing those and our entire department of transportation will be c.n.g. over the course of the next year. >> governor mcdonald, thank you for the opportunity to speak and what we're doing in virginia, much like what denise and roxanne have talked about, we are doing a lot of those things in virginia as well. in virginia, we had the fortune of an incoming governor inheriting a newly minted biennial budget from the outgoing governor. when governor mcdonell came into office in 2010, we inherited a budget shortfall of about $6 billion. part of that, $1.8 billion of that was in last six months of fiscal year 2010. and the other four plus billion of that was associated with the next ben um. so we came into office and rolled up our sleeves and figured out how we would fill that hole. and fill it without raising taxes. the outgoing governor had proposed $2 billion personal income tax increase to offset part of that. and also had requested that the state roll back tax relief. car tax relief that had been implemented years prior. our mandate from the governor working with the finance secretary and all of state government was to find ways to cut costs, to do it, to balance the budget as we're required to do in virginia by the constitution. and to do it without raising taxes. we did that. oom proud to say that governor mcdonell through his leadership within that six-month time period not only did we eracial the zest and do it without raise being ging taxes but ad 400 million surplus in july of 2010. we had a surplus in 2011 and this year in 2012. they've averaged anywhere from about $550 million to the lowest was in 2010 of $400 million. the average being about $450 million over that time period. one of the biggest things we did is came in and health care costs are escalating just like they are in every state. but governor mcdonnell put forth policies he believed private sector policies to encourage, to incentivize state government to not operate as usual. a couple of examples. we came in and the governor put in what was in 2010 somewhat controversial, particularly with some of his friends in the legislature, a pay performance, 3% bonus plan. what we said is state employees, you figure out how we save money year end, break the cycle of spending down to the last nickel at the end of the fiscal year like many states in the federal government do, figure out how to save that money and we'll return up to 3% of that to you as a bonus. we save three times the cost of the bonus. it was a success. in 2011, somewhat different, the governor told state agency heads, you find ways to save money, return it to us for use in the general fund, and we will in turn allow you to keep a small percentage of that to cover some of these one-time costs to upgrade services for the constituents. we were very successful in doing that. significant in the hundreds of millions of dollars were returned to the state that year in savings. this past year, once again, the governor redid the 3% performance bonus plan. it cost about $70 million. and we returned again well over twice that cost in savings to the state. the governor has really ramped up and there has been some controversy associated with it. ramped up the use of public-private partnerships in virginia. whether it be to build infrastructure, such as highways, or to outsource some of the functions in state government that have quintessentially been known to be state functions. we believe we've saved hundreds of millions of dollars in doing so. and we are returning that money to the bottom line. much like denise talked about, we came into office a rainy day fund was about $300 million. we're projected including with the governor will announce next week in his next budget announcement on monday, we will be well over $700 million in the rainy day fund. in addition to that, we've put about $250 million prior to the governor's announcement there will be some additional funds going into higher education into higher education and really the effort there is to try to bring down those tuition costs as dick talked about. they have been escalating in virginia just like they have in every other state. we're very honored in virginia to have a great higher education system. but the schools were becoming unaffordable for virginia residents. and so the governor tried to find ways to bring down those costs. once again, a public-private solution was in place. and what the governor told college presidents, ok, the state will put in additional money. you need to find ways to cut costs and to reallocate up to a percentage of what you're currently getting to reallocate that back and put it into students in the schools. not into building more buildings. but to put it into the school and into the students. so again, governor mcdonnell's mantra really for the last three years is to hold state government accountable for our expenditures, to expect more, to implement private sector solutions. we've been very fortunate to bring down our unemployment rate. 5.7% in virginia. we came into office, it was about 7.3%. but we were very concerned with what's going on in d.c. we are -- we will be disproportionately impacted. we know in virginia by what will inevitably have to occur in d.c. and that's cuts. we are obviously connected to d.c. we have a huge defense sector in virginia. whether it be hampton roads or the private contractors in northern virginia. we know that. there are estimates out there of a job loss of over 150,000 jobs lost. potentially as a result of squeftation. -- sequesteration. we created what's called a fact fund a federal action contingency trust fund. we are in addition to putting money no our rainy day fund we are putting money into a fund where the governor has pretty broad discretion. consults with the legislature but unlike the rainy day fund which is based solely on a drop in revenue, the fact fund is intended to address cuts in areas where we can put funds into particular sectors in northern virginia or hampton roads to offset those costs to just incentivize the private sector to come back in and create those jobs and replace those jobs and grow them. so we are trying to work with a lot of private sector solutions in virginia. to address the challenges that we have. they're great. but we're ready for the challenge. and we're going to do our part obviously with the balanced budget. we must balance our budget if it requires cutting. that's what will happen. we have tried to be very conservative in our revenue estimates. knowing that these things loom out there. but with the uncertainty in d.c., it's really difficult. the governor will announce next week his budget for next year. but we've already talked to the leadership and general assembly and session in january, we can come back to you in late january or early february depending on what happens in d.c. and we may have to make significant changes. one of the last things that we did prior to completing the budget was the governor had me send out a request to all arings heads saying submit his plans for 4% reduction of your state agencies. the governor is implementing some of that in his budget next week but we're holding some of that in abeyance. knowing that we may need that come january or february. so we're trying to have things on the shelf and ready to do if we need to do it. >> thanks. dick, if you want to take a minute. are these representative states or not and -- >> one of the great things about this country is i don't think any state is the same as every other state. i think these states are smaller states, more rural states. states in which public employee unions have less leverage in the politics which makes a big difference. and i think where the infrastructure needs are nowhere near as great as they are in the states that have central cities which require massive public transportation. mechanisms. the fact that those analogies aren't there doesn't diminish in any way the quite prudent and proper steps that these states have taken to keep their own fiscal house in order. certainly having rainy day funds which many of the big northern states haven't had is absolutely critical to take care of the enormous variations that occur in budgets, in the economy. i think you can't lose sight of the fact that one of the reasons you have smaller medicaid expenditure is because of the federal formula. which favors some states because it isn't based on the actual need. it's based on a median income calculation. and as a result of that, a state like new york or california has a lot more poor people. and it also has a lot of rich people. it doesn't get the same break. i think you get 60% or over 60% reimbursement from the feds. you get 50%. you get -- i think it's you. get 60%. i can't remember everybody's numbers. i tried to educate myself. and in new york, we only get 50%. it makes a big difference. pam moynihan who always tried to change those formulas, ended up sake it's all james madison's fault. >> and we appreciate -- >> i think there are a couple of things that are terribly, terribly important and don't contradict anything that you all said. but we don't have a very good way of measuring the adequacy of our infrastructure. we know that the chinese spend eight times as high of percentage of their g.d.p. in infrastructure as we do in this country. and we know that that's got to make us less competitive. and i think i learned from the people at the chamber here that the cost of moving goods in the united states is greater in absolute dollars than it is in europe or in asia. and i don't know personally how you grow a real economy without being able to produce goods in a competitive way. i think that it's important to also understand that there are so many factors that go into the adequacy of an educational system. you've referred to consolidation. absolutely critical. and new york state, 650 school districts. a lot of them, each of whom has their -- has one school bus or some of whom have one school bus and a commissioner transportation. >> oklahoma as tiny as we are have 521 school districts. >> that is a very tough nut politically. because education is always local. and always wants to make sure her kid gets on the football team. and it's hard to change that. but there's enormous, enormous redundancy in expenditures there. and that has to be addressed. also, the nature of the population varies. and that has an impact on the quality of education. and the ability of schools to teach. and the same time we have to recognize that 50 years ago, we had -- there weren't very many opportunities for women. there weren't very many women running states of these united states 50 years ago. so the greatest opportunity professionally, women in the teaching profession and now they're outdoing us males in many cases. so that has changed as well. but there isn't a national solution to that. that is a situation that's totally local. last of all, let me say that one of the reasons states are in trouble is because they have borrowed against the future to pay for the present. in albany i saw one financial institution after another come to albany, we'll solve your budget problems for you. we'll discount your future revenues. a politician said that's great. if we can borrow against the future, then we don't have to tax, and we don't have to cut. i would respectfully submit to you there are tens of billions of dollars around this country that are -- where future revenues have been high poth indicated to solve today's budget problems. that could be stopped. it could be stopped statutorily with self-discipline in the financial services world. it could be stopped by the rating agencies. it could be significant distinctions created. and last of all, somebody raises the question about what happens? i think tom did. if a state runs out of money. should the federal government do anything? well, if you'll permit me, i did all the negotiations on behalf of new york in 1975 with president ford and bill simon and -- to get federal help. it was a good thing that ford waited as long as he did to step in. because when he finally stepped in, he was able to do something that made a difference without imposing any financial risk on the federal government whatsoever. and he was able because he waited until the last possible moment to be able to impose discipline on the state in consideration for having provided something that wasn't even cash. provided a line of credit. the interest rate of which was higher than what treasury normally found and they took back a lien on every dollar the federal government transferred to states and local governments. under all programs, education, infrastructure, and anything else. so that it would have been so bloody painful for any state to fail to help. that the facts never came about. i am not advocating that the federal government extend credit or write a check. i am saying that there are ways in which the federal government can politically sensible way impose some discipline on this process. if they wish to. and every politician in new york, the unions, the banks, everybody did what they swore they wouldn't do. because the alternative was so much worse. so whether the discipline is -- comes from laws or from the ability of somebody else to take something away, if you don't behave in a responsible and prudent fashion, these problems and these dollars that we're talking about, a sufficient consequence to require a careful examination of all ways of trying to keep this society together. >> let me interrupt you right there so we can do a little bit of conversation and allow a chance to bring everybody in as well. i want to thank everyone for their remarks. and just listening to what folks said in their opening remarks, we want to throw out a few questions to each of you. in particular, given dick's comment about the match and how it varies, and what i didn't know, which is that it's relatively high in colorado. but roxanne, what you described on the health care front is really quite innovative, right? and we're talking about the problems that we're having on the federal level with finding innovative ways to deliver health care that the federal government's responsible for exclusively in the medicare system. and one of those approaches that's talked about and the affordable care act gives the authority to experiment with are what are called episodic payments, the alibi to say to a physician -- the ability to say to a physician, you don't get paid more by doing more but get paid for treating the patient in the way that patient needs to be treated. you're doing that, you said, in colorado, despite the fact that you have a fairly generous match. is that on its way? >> well, just because we have a more generous in some states f map doesn't mean that costs aren't a primary issue for us. they are very much. and so having a little more generous has allowed us to move forward with some expansion, has allowed us to move forward with the exchange. we believe in ways that some states have not been able to do. but it doesn't mean that we can ignore the cost containment issues or the fraud issues or -- we are also really working aggressively with the federal government on return visits. and hospital releases. and how we take away dollars if people leave the hospital and have to return. and so really looking at that whole arena of patient care. the other thing that we did 18 months ago was we went to all medicaid patients, also having a co-payment, on every visit. and it's not a significant co-payment. but we have significantly changed our medicaid emergency room visits by the use of co-payments. and a higher co-payment. and it's really not that significant. but for income it is significant. so it's a mere $5. and we have reversed our overuse of emergency room visits by simply charging the $5. and we've been able to really drive behavior change. and so we are starting to see that it doesn't take that big of a carrot or that big of a stick to change behavior. and so really going to a place of just like everybody pays a portion for their health care. so do medicaid. so really trying to drive behavior. and also driving behavior on the physician side. >> great. in the state of oklahoma, and the state of virginia, the unemployment situation is quite favorable at the moment. both states, virginia, 5.7% and oklahoma 5.3%. i think those are -- at least in oklahoma, i believe it's a state that's traditionally had an unemployment rate lower >> as low as in the 4%. >> so sort of odd fact, which is when you look at what the average unemployment, typical unemployment rate is in a given state it varies significantly across states. so north dakota, it's always 4%. and other states are often have sort of standard equilibrium rates that are much higher. so things from that perspective are fairly good in both states. and similarly, the unemployment rate has fallen, in all three states. but particularly in oklahoma and in virginia. and so obviously as more people go back to work, more people are paying taxes. obviously there's a political temptation to recognize those changes and capitalize on them. but sometimes it's just good luck, right? sometimes it's just the business cycle. sometimes it's factors outside the state. policy arena. to what -- to what extent do you attribute the successes on the state level to the policies that have been put in place, versus the natural business cycle that's going on? i'll let either one of you or both of you. >> one of the biggest distinctions we're quick to point out is certainty. i think one of the biggest problems was businesses in this country, the fear and uncertainty they have with the federal system. and businesses are unwilling to expand and invest. and do that. because they don't know what the situation is going to be with the federal system and the economy. and what we're doing with taxes, etc. the difference in oklahoma is that when people locate their -- expand there, people are pretty confident that they know exactly what path we're on. they know the governor's plan is to continue to reduce red tape and regulations on businesses. we had a quarter point tax cut the first year she was in office. we will advocate for a continued lower taxes in oklahoma. and we'll have another proposal this year. we weren't successful last year. but our mission is to be successful. this year at reducing taxes. so businesses know that the environment there we're creating is going to be one that will be conducive to their expansion. and i think that's why we have had success, that it is attributable to our policies locally. on a national level you may not see because of some of the hess tancy with the national environment. -- hesitancy with the national environment. >> there are some things that make virginia unique. proximity on the east coast. the fact that we've got a lot of major interstates that run through virginia. certainly benefit us. but really in going to denise's point, a lot of it is certainty. and we are also the northern most right to work state on the east coast. that is a tremendous benefit to us in the commonwealth of virginia as far as attracting businesses. in addition to that, hampton roads, we've got the largest deep water port on the east coast. we are planning to take full advantage of the panama canal, the changes there coming soon. which gives us the ability to bring commerce into virginia. we are aggressively building our rail system. going from the port of virginia west to try to get that traffic out west. we are -- just announced that we are building another highway. it will be a toll access highway. but one of the primary purposes of that highway is to bring truck traffic from the port of virginia inland. and connect it directly with interstate 95. and so that will help us again through the commerce side of the equation to bring in new commerce and the commonwealth of virginia. i'm going to mention something that's been a little bit taboo as of late. the governor is not ashamed of it as all. as a matter of fact we've taken full advantage of it. and it was discussed earlier, that's incentives to business. the governor has put significant additional resources into our virginia economic development partnership. both funds that he has at his disposal to incentivize and encourage business to come to virginia. but also resources to build up infrastructure that we need to do in virginia. i know there was a piece in "the new york times" recently that criticized the use of that. but in virginia, some of the things that were pointed out as concerns, the fact that states have neglected to invest in higher education. we're doing that in virginia. the fact that states are not keeping an eye as to where these resources are going. we're not doing that in virginia. as a matter of fact, we are aggressively pursuing claw-back provisions on any funds we give to the private sector to investize them to come to virginia. we've enforced that aggressively. we're looking to build infrastructure in virginia. we're not neglecting those priorities that truly helps to bring business in virginia. sure, we are definitely fortunate to be where we are on the east coast. to have right to work laws. to have just our proximity with the port. but i think it's a combination of certainty. a combination of a little bit of good luck maybe if you want to call it that. proximity. but an aggressive governor, really and to give our general assembly credit. they've been very supportive in that effort to use incentives but to hold business accountable when they take advantage of those incentives and come to virginia. so i think it's a combination of all those. >> let me ask one last question and we'll open it up to the floor. in my role over at the american enterprise, i'm a tax guy. so on the federal level, primarily. and so dick, i was struck by your comments earlier, when we think about tax reform, the mantra is broaden the base. and there's a lot of interest that was key to the simpbon-bowles commission and to a lot of other proposals that have been floated, having a broader definition of income would allow the federal government to maybe lower rates or certainly collect more revenues. but those can have other consequences. the consequences in my view are mixed. and you talked about the state and local deductions. state and local tax deduction which obviously -- at least in my view is a subsidy but regardless of how you term it is a policy of benefit to states, particularly states with high income tax rates. but there are offsetting factors, too. and so for one, the mortgage interest deduction. which is also one of our largest tax expenditures. many states have coupled their income tax system to the federal income tax system. and so as the federal government were to broaden their tax base, so too would the states. and they would have a benefit. and so let me ask two questions on the tax front. and dick, actually, you alluded to both of them in your opening remarks. one is the use tax issue. the amazon issue. or the out of state sales tax collection issue. big effort on the states' parts to advocate for federal legislation to facilitate the collection of those use taxes. are those issues that your states are advocating for or working on behalf of? do you see that as a large revenue opportunity for you in terms of offsetting collections? and do, on the federal tax reform front. to what extent do you see opportunities or do you see risks from base broadening reform? >> well, i think your point is correct. that there are some tax expenditures which -- states would benefit from as well. i think each of these stand on their own. you have a series, if you look at a chart of what states follow the federal tax code and what respect, a lot of them follow some parts of the federal tax law. not all of them. some differ on estate taxes. and i guess i feel that spending money, whether it's a tax expenditure or an appropriation, to get somebody to go from one jurisdiction to another, given the problems that the united states of america faces today, is not a useful expenditure. of limited public resources. and i know that flies in the face of a lot of states who wish to bring jobs in. but if you bring jobs in by offering all kinds of tax abatements and exemptions, as new jersey did recently. a zero sum game. because your pension fund is so underfunded in nrge there's no way they can meet the obligations. they're constitution al obligated to make. so what's the net accomplishment? i mean, i remember years ago there was a silly program in the carter years called the you dig program where states actually got an appropriation from the congress and used it to bribe a business to move from one state to another. that was reducio ab surdum. >> let's have comment on your views on the tax front. >> our small businesses have asked for equity with the amazons of the world. and so we have been doing some of that. we have been very clear with our taxpayers that we would not ask for tax increases until we had -- at least on two things. one was we did significant personnel reform. this last year with the voters and after 11 times of our voters turning down the ability to take our personnel rules out of our constitution. finally did that. and got rid of some things like public employee bumping rights. and really moved to more of an at will employee state. and we said that was the first thing that had to happen. the second thing that we've been able to do is we have been in a process of leaning all aspects of government and required our departments that when they -- the revenue started coming back, they could not ask for any money that had been cut before from consolidations. and could not replace any leaning efforts so take dollars invested in higher education and do those sort of things instead. what we've said to our taxpayers is we haven't cleaned our own house yet. so we would not be asking for any additional revenue. >> we've been able to have that initial quarter point. we'll look for another tax cut this year. we know on the federal level if the bush tax cuts were to expire, that our g.d.p. would slow down. estimates of .5% and at the rate that we're growing now, that would be significant. for us. and so we are keeping a very watchful eye. my governor along with other governors were up here last week meeting with the president and the speaker and harry reid, what they do here will have significant impacts on our states. and i think the states offer a lot of good ideas and a lot of things that i think the guys in d.c. need to listen to. because they lose sight of the impact that all of those things will have on the state. it's very easy for people to advocate for the mortgage tax deduction or the charitables. a lot of the things that won't have a lot of advocates are the things that impact the state. so more than likely going to be on the chopping block. because they won't have constituencies other than our governors fighting for them. >> really quickly, a lot of the same things that roxanne and denise said are true in virginia as well. just a couple of quick points. we are a conformity state in virginia as are many other states. which traditionally had been. we'll likely continue to be. last year, we addressed the governor actually had me address this directly. the so-called amazon issue in virginia. we had like many states just gotten a large infusion of new jobs from amazon. and we addressed the issue in virginia and began to collect the sales and use taxes. have them remitt that to the commonwealth. obviously what the marketplace equity act and marketplace fairness act in congress, a lot of states are waiting to see what happens there. but we've positioned ourselves. we believe as well as possible to deal with that. one thing i didn't point out that i think it goes to something we said a few minutes ago, we like the other states, we came into office, had significant challenges with our pension system. we still have significant challenges. but the governor has done a couple of things. this past year, we reformed our pension system and gone from a defined benefit plan to a hybrid plan effective in 2014. that's for new employees. so we think we've eliminated or minimized the legal challenges that we know that will probably come. we'll see in 2014 whether that happens. but secondly, the governor with some of these savings that i mentioned earlier put significant hundreds of millions of dollars back into our pension system. to try to buy down some of those liabilities that have accrued over time. they are a serious problem. and we're going to have to continue to watch that closely. but in virginia, by and large, we feel like we're as prepared as we're going to be. we know cuts and changes will take place in d.c. we'll wait to see where the chips fall. but we're going to be prepared through things like the fact fund, extra reserves, to try to have as much liquidity as possible to deal with those. >> great. thanks. i would like to open it up to the floor. we've heard a lot about pensions and unemployment education, a lot of other issues. that -- there may be other topics that haven't come up here or maybe people want to dig deeper. i don't know if there's a microphone or -- there's a microphone here and if you raise your hand i'll take a question at the front table. state your name and make the question pretty brief because we're short -- a little bit short on time. >> my name is sam gilbert and i'm a member of the chambers employees benefit committee. one of our last meetings we had a representative from medicaid. and we talked about whether or not medicaid is even factoring in long-term care costs and the answer is no. they're not. so medicaid costs are going to significantly increase. the question that i have, however, is it seems that with all the unfunded promises on health care and retirement, municipal financing has seen its brighter days. and is there any efforts and what are the efforts of alternative public-private investment partnerships to invest in infrastructure and job creation? >> can i -- let me take two questions together. and then we'll -- people will mix it together. this woman right here. >> i'm a representative for nonprofit america. and i have a two-part question. what are the partnerships that you're having with let's say the department of labor or department of energy, the e.p.a., and the s.b.a. with regard to helping small businesses primarily in the regulatory issues? with the use of i.t.? and number two, what are your states doing to nonprofits with regard to pilot programs and that's payment in lieu of taxes? >> so partnerships. private partnerships, federal partnerships, and partnerships for the nonprofits in the states. >> well, let me try to answer the first question. it's a very appealing concept. but the truth of the matter is that if you want to build something, and it's going to cost you x dollars, you really want to be able to service that money you borrow to pay for it. you borrow -- you want to borrow x dollars and borrow it as inexpensively as you can. particularly if the revenue that you're going to use to pay the debt service on x dollars is going to come from user charges. and even more compellingly important, if it's going to come out of general tax revenues. and it's not going to come from any other place. so the fact that you have private enterprise and private infrastructure funds is perfectly sound for projects that are optional in my view. but it's not a solution for an essential mass transit subway system. or bus system. and i remember when i ran the m.t.a. in new york, people would ask me all the time, why -- why is it open 24 hours a day? and the answer is so all the people who clean your homes and your offices can get to and from their own residences. you cannot run most of these public facilities on the basis of purely economic soundness. when they serve a public function. so if you were a governor or mayor you would want to borrow that money as inexpensively as you possibly can. as i said, at the risk of repeating it, if you were using general revenue dollars to give that service or charging people a fare or tuition or fee or a use fee to get into a state park or whatever, you would want those as low as possible. and, therefore, i don't think the p-3 concept has much in the way of sustainability or it will never amount to a significant part of any major infrastructure endeavor in the united states. >> >> want to take issue with that or the other question? >> as i said a few minutes ago, we are aggressively using them in virginia. our laws are ppta laws. the transportation side of the equation were put on the books. a little over a decade ago. and so we are aggressively using them. we are using -- we mentioned a few moments ago and used the ppta and will use it to build a new interstate which will get traffic and primarily designed for truck traffic and can be used for vehicles. but to get transport vehicles, goods and services quickly to other access points, either taken out by rail or to go on the interstate systems, we are using it also in the education arena. our ppea, education facilities act, is being used in virginia to build schools. it's being used to build municipal garages. it's being used for a lot of different purposes in virginia. we find a -- what we cannot do it alone. even if we bring in additional revenue on transportation, the gotch said we can't do it -- governor said we can't do it alone without partnerships. dick's point is well taken. for example, some of the ppta's we're doing we announced a 495 express lane in northern virginia. that's built with a ppta. they will continue to be responsible for maintenance on that. long after it's complete. maintenance costs alone in transportation have skyrocketed. with the cost in increase in petroleum. petroleum is a major factor in asphalt. i believe in the last 20 years it's increased by 350%. so there are costs that you can contract with the private sector to take off the books. yes, there's an expense associated with that. but again, it takes that issue off the books for the state. and it allows it to put those funds into other places. >> ok. and i know that was another question. unfortunately, we're well over our time. and i would encourage you to corner these guys when they get off stage and ask your question to them directly. with that, we're going to conclude this panel. and we're going to move straight into the next session. i would like to thank all the participants for their time. [applause] >> on newsmakers, washington representative kathy mcmorris rogers, incoming republican conference chair, she looks at the so-called fiscal cliff and how republicans and democrats can come to agreement. she also talks about republican priorities for the next congress. newsmakers. sunday at 10:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m. eastern on c-span. >> my inspiration was the idea that i wanted to explain how totalitarianism. -- happens. we know the story of the gold war and the documents and we've seen the archives that described relationships between first roosevelt and stalin and churchill and then truman. we know the main events from our point of view. we read them. we've written them. what i wanted to do was show from a different angle, from the ground up, what did it feel like to be one of the people who were subjected to this system? and how did people make choices in that system and how did they react and how did they behave? it's interesting. one of the things that's happened since 1989 is the region that we used to call eastern europe has become very differentiated. it's no longer -- these countries no longer even have much in common with one another except for the common memory of communist occupation. >> more with pulitzer prize winner anne abblebaum on life in soviet east germany, poland and hungary from the end of world war through to 1956 and her historical narrative "iron curtain" sunday night at 8:00 on c-span's "q&a." >> tonight on c-span farewell speeches and tributes from the 112th congress. first republican senator from indiana, richard lugar delivers his farewell speech from the senate floor followed by senator lugar's john kerr at a dinner for the anniversary of the senate relations committee and california representative lynn woolsey gives her farewell address to the house of representatives. she's followed by a tribute by other members of congress to outgoing california representatives. indiana senator dick lugar is retiring after the 112th congress. he won election to the senate in 1977. after serving two terms as mayor of indianapolis. and he's the longest serving u.s. senator in the and he is the longest-serving senator in the state's history, but he was defeated by the treasurer. he was chairman of the foreign relations committee from 1985 to 1987 and again from 2003 them 2007, and he is currently its ranking member. -- from 2003 to 2007, and he is currently its ranking member. this is about one half hour. >> madam president, i rise today to address my colleagues on a number of issues important to the future of the united states and to offer some perspective on senate service. in a few weeks, i will leave the senate for new pursuits that will allow me to devote much deeper attention to a number of issues that have been a part of my senate service. among these are preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and developing more efficient ways to feed the world. i am especially pleased that i will be serving on the faculty of the university of indianapolis and helping that institution establish a washington internship program. i look forward to announcing additional endeavors of service in the coming weeks. my service in the senate would not have been possible without the encouragement and the constant support of my loving wife, char, our four sons, mark, bob, john, and david, and the entire lugar family, most of which is with us here in the galleries today. their strength and sacrifices have been indispensible to my public service, and i am also very much indebted to a great number of talented and loyal friends who have served with me in the senate, including, by my count, more than 300 senators, hundreds of personal and committee staff members, and more than 1,000 student interns. in my experience, it is difficult to conceive of a better platform from which to devote oneself to public service and the search for solutions to national and international problems. at its best, the senate is one of the founders' most important creations. a great deal has been written recently about political discord in the united states, with some commentators judging that partisanship is at an all- time high. having seen quite a few periods in the congress when political struggles were portrayed in this way, i hesitate to describe our current state as the most partisan ever, but i do believe that as an institution, we have not lived up to the expectations of our constituents to make excellence in governance our top priority. many of us have had some type of executive experience as governors, mayors, corporation chiefs, cabinet officials. i had the good fortune of serving two terms as mayor on -- of indianapolis, prior to my senate -- of indianapolis, prior to my senate service, and for the last 36 -- my senate service, and for the last 36 years, i have attempted to apply lessons learned during those early governing experiences to my work in the senate. as a mayor, my responsibility for what happened in my city was comprehensive and inescapable. citizens held the mayor's office accountable for the prosaic tasks of daily life, like trash collections, fixing potholes in the streets, snow removal, but also for executing strategies for the economic and social advancement of the city. in legislative life, by contrast, we are responsible for positions, expressed through votes, co-sponsorships, interviews, and other means. it takes courage to declare dozens or even hundreds or positions and stand for office, knowing that with each position, you are displeasing some group of voters, but we do our county a disservice if we mistake the act of taking positions for governance. they are not the same thing. governance requires adaptation to shifting circumstances. it often requires finding common ground with americans that have a different vision than your own. it requires leaders who believe like edmund burke that their first responsibility to their constituents is to apply their best judgment. it is possible to be elected and re-elected again and again and gain prominence in the senate while giving very little thought to governance. east one can even gained considerable notoriety by devoting -- one can even gained -- gain considerable notoriety by raising money, focusing on public relations. responsibility for legislative shortcomings can be pinned on the other party or even on members of one's own party. none of us is above politics, nor did the founders expect us to be, but we should be aspiring to something greater than this. too often in recent years, members of congress have locked themselves in inflexible positions, many of which have no hope of being implemented in a divided government, and some of these positions have been further calcified by pledges signed for political purposes. too often, we have failed to listen to each other and questioned the views being promulgated by our parties, whether they make strategic sense for our country's future. there was a rasmussen poll conducted this month that found only 10% of likely voters gave congress a rating of excellent or good. for me, the irony is that having seen at several generations of lawmakers pass through the body, -- having seen several generations of lawmakers pass through the body -- eager to contribute to the welfare of our country. often, the public does not believe that. it is easier to assume that congressional feelings arise due to the incompetence or even malfeasance of individual legislators or, perhaps, washington, d.c., itself is corrupting. it is disconcerting to think that the shortcomings are complex and defy simple solutions, but the founders were realists. parochialism, personal ambition. they understood that good intentions would not always prevail, and, accordingly, they designed able -- a way to prevent power from accumulating in a few hands, but they knew such republic would require a great deal of cooperation, and they knew it would require most elected officials to have a dedication to governance, and they trusted that leaders would arise in every era to make their plan work. the senate has a role to play in good governance. we have power is not exercised by the executive branch. -- we have powers not exercised by the executive branch. senators can have careers spanning decades, allowing them to apply expertise over decades, even as administrations come and go. we can also confer a bipartisan foreign mark on a policy. even a small bipartisan group of senators is a powerful signal of the possibility for unifying solutions. my hope is that senators will devote much more of their anjous to governance. in a perfect world, -- more of their energies to governance. this is a very high bar for any legislative branch to clear, but we must aspire to it. we are facing fundamental changes in the world that will deeply affect american security in our standard of living. a list of such changes is long, but its start in asia with the rise of china and india -- but it starts in asia with the rise of china and india. at the center of this pivot is china, which exits as an adversary and a fellow traveler, ensuring mutual goals -- in sharing mutual goals -- as a fellow traveler, sharing mutual goals. this will impact american relations with the rest of asia and may even help determine prospects for peace or war. in visiting thailand and the philippines in october, i was reminded of the economic vitality of southeast asia and the fact that that tend countries comprise an asean represent now the fourth largest export market of the united states. these countries are center stage. we must stand firm with our friends throughout asia and actively pursue prospects for free trade and open sea lanes and other policies that will strengthen american economic growth. more broadly, we face the specter of global resource constraints, especially efficiencies of energy and food that could stimulate conflict and deepen poverty. we have made startling gains in domestic energy production, but we remain highly vulnerable still to our dependency on oil, and perhaps equally important, even if we were able to produce more energy at home, we cannot isolate ourselves from energy shocks in the global economy. we have to cooperate with other nations in improving the global system of manufacturing and moving energy supplies. currently, a key to this is helping to assure the completion of a southern energy corridor serving parts of europe and unleashing our own a liquefied natural gas exports to address the energy vulnerability -- our own liquefied natural gas exports to address the energy vulnerability. productivity of global agriculture will not keep up with projected food demand on less many countries change their policies. -- unless many countries change their policies. agriculture technology, including genetically modified techniques. their risk of climate change intensified this imperative -- the risk of climate change int ensifies this imperative. access to the internet and social media has deeply affected international politics, in most cases to the better, but it has also contributed to bucky balls, like the arabs during -- but it has also contributed to of people -- to upheavals, like the arab spring. potential catastrophe remains of a terrorist attack on america, an employing -- on america and employing weapons of mass destruction. we could be set back by more than one decade or more. having devoted considerable time to this problem, there are no silver bullets. protecting the americans from weapons of mass destruction is a painstaking process that every day must employ our best technological, diplomatic, and military tools. we must maintain the competitiveness of the united states in the international community. we should see education, energy efficiency, access to global markets, the attraction of immigrant entrepreneurs, and other factors as national security issues. my own view is that the fundamentals of american society still offer us the best hand to play in global competitiveness. no other country can match the quality of our post secondary education. we have the broadest technological base and the most advanced agricultural system. our population is younger and more mobile than most other intentional lies nation's -- most other industrialized nations. the competitive genius of the american people has allowed us time and time again to reinvent our american economy, but we must deal with failures of governments that have delayed resolutions to obvious problems. no rational strategy for our long-term growth and security should fail to restrain current entitlement spending, and no attempt to gain the maximum, a strategic advantage from our human resource potential -- gain the maximum, strategic advantage from our human resource potential -- and encourages the most talented immigrants to contribute to america's future. there is a need to elevate our senate debate pitting it is vital that the president and congress established -- there is a need to elevate our senate debate. it is vital that the president and congress established -- establish -- such as war with iran or another catastrophic terrorist attack. this depends on congressional leaders who are willing to set aside partisan advantage and on administration officials who understand the advantage of having the support of congress. currently, the national security dialogue between the president and congress, in my judgment, is one of the least constructive i have ever witnessed. there is little foundation for resolving national security disputes or even the expectations that can occur. now, before the next 9/11, the president has to be willing to call republicans to the oval office and establish the basis of a working partnership in foreign policy, and republicans have to be able to suspend opposition that serves no purpose but to limit their own role and render cooperation impossible. all should recognize the need for unity in the coming year when events in iran, syria, no. -- syria, and others will test american security in extreme ways. i commend each of you, my senate colleagues, for the commitment that allow you to stand for election to the united states senate to begin with. running for office is a difficult endeavor, usually accompanied by great personal risk and cost. each one of you is capable of being a positive force for changing the tone of debate in our country. each one of you has the responsibility to protect the integrity and represent your constituents, but also to make informed and imaginative choices on which our country depends. i am optimistic about our country's future. i believe that both internal divisions and external threats can be overcome. the united states will continue to serve as the inspiration for people seeking peace, freedom, and economic prosperity. and the united states senate should and will be at the forefront of this advancement. may we see each day, got our creator -- each day from god, our creator -- and may god continue to bless the united states of america. >> the gentleman from indiana. >> the service of richard lugar, and to pay tribute to his legacy. i have served beside him during my two tours of service here in the united states senate. all of us want to make a difference. most certainly, senator lugar has done that. at an early age, he developed a passion for knowledge. a native of indianapolis, he was valedictorian at his high school, a distinguished institution where knowledge is at the forefront. one of our former members, ted stevens, was also a graduate of that high school. dick lugar then went on to become valedictorian at is university, where he graduated with a degree in economics. he went on to attend oxford university as a rhodes scholar and got a master's degree in politics, philosophy, an economics, and today, he is one of the most decorated scholars in the united states senate, with 46 on re-degrees from 15 states and the district of columbia. -- with 46 or honorary degree is -- 46 honorary degrees from 15 states and the district of columbia. i would say the navy chose the best person they could have for that job, and dick lugar became known not only for his hard work but his intellectual prowess. senator lugar, at the young age of 35, became mayor, serving two terms. there is no question that dick lugar is recognized as one of the most influential and visionary mayors that indiana has ever seen, and i would submit that the country has ever seen. i was working full time and attending indiana law school at night, and that did not leave much time for us to enjoy the amenities of indianapolis, but, frankly, there were very few to enjoy it at that particular time. it was then that our newly- elected mayor began a transformation. it is now one of the most attractive and livable cities in america. he worked with the assembly. he extended the boundaries of the city and provided comments, is essential services more efficiently, -- and provided common, essentials services more efficiently -- essential services more efficiently. it became a model for the country. moving from the 26 largest city to one of the nation's dozen largest cities. when i think of the changes over the past 40 years, i see the fulfillment of then-mayor dick lugar. men and women of sense and decency. not all of us all in that category. sometimes, that sense is questioned.- is such skill is extremely valuable in the united states senate, a body that by its very design is supposed to foster compromise by legislators on issues before the nation. and so, it was a national progression that following his success as mayor, dick lugar's its job would be as united states senator. next job would be as united states senator. he is the type of lawmaker and a leader who works hard to bring both parties together, find common ground. his contributions are many, including his service on the agricultural committee. his most important role in the senate has to be his leadership of the senate foreign relations committee. as a two-time chairman of this committee, he has been one of the most influential minds on foreign policy in the united states. he has worked tirelessly to promote arms control, dismantle nuclear arms, and address the global food crisis, among others. among his many accomplishments, his legislation will now likely be -- when senator lugar joined, he traveled to the soviet union, on multiple occasions, to gain a better understanding of how the united states can dismantle and secure weapons of mass destruction. he champions the landmark legislation -- he championed legislation that makes the world a safer place. it has deactivated more than 7500 nuclear warheads that were once aimed at the united states, a contribution to which americans can never give enough thanks. over his 36 years in this institution, senators from both side of the aisle have considered him a trusted resource when it comes to foreign policy and many other important issues. he has been a consistent resources for those who seek thoughtful answers. when i first arrived here in 1989, we operated a unique joint-office arrangement, sharing staff. many of our colleagues were surprised by this arrangement. dick lugar and i liked to tell them they were getting twice the work for half the price. his sincere desire to reach across the aisle, to find common ground, and his unique talent for forging coalitions and bringing people together to accomplish big things -- a tribute to senator lugar would be incomplete without recognizing the support of his wife, charlene, and his sons. public service has demands on our families, and their support and sacrifice plays a role in the success of any senator. it has been an honor for me to work with senator lugar. i am thankful for his service to indiana and our country. we wish you and your family nothing but the best as you begin this next chapter of your life. you have outlined many other ways that you will be continuing. that is a great benefit. i am certain we will continue to learn and benefit from your lifetime of public service. i know my colleagues join me in thanking him for his many years of dedicated service, and it has been a pleasure to serve as the junior senator from indiana under you. with that, i yield. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> senator dick lugar served on the university board of trustees while he was mayor, and they are establishing and the kennedy -- an academy. his replacement is the current indiana representative and democrat, joe donnelly, who defeated the indiana state treasurer in the 2012 november election, just shy of 50% of the vote. ranking member richard lugar joined john kerry at the 196th anniversary of the foreign relations committee. sponsored by the u.s. capitol historical society this is over one hour. >> ladies and gentlemen, if i could have your attention? we will start our program. i think it is great where we can have an event where everybody is so interested in visiting with each other, that it is a great success when that happens, and i hate to put a damper on it, but we do want to get going, and i do appreciate your attention, and i am sure that gentleman i will introduce will also appreciate it. i am with the u.s. capitol historical society, and i have the honor tonight of introducing three gentlemen who actually need no introduction, because i know you people are very much aware of the highlights of their career and quite knowledgeable about the senate and the congress, so i am going to dispense with that, and, of course, each one of them had some leadership positions in our nation's foreign policy as members of the foreign relations committee, and we will hear about some tonight. i also did a little research myself and found that all of them have also written books. in fact, some have written more than one book, so instead of me giving you the usual, canned introduction, i thought i would let their own words in their own writing introduce them. i start with john kerry. he came by his interest in foreign affairs as the son of an american diplomat, as well as his own experiences in vietnam. in his book "a call to service," , kerr -- service," senator kerry talks about being a brat. being overseas, you are exposed to many things, and it teaches you. he noted that his father was often transferring not only overseas but also back into the united states. he wrote, "1 assignment that he had in washington that had an especially strong effect on me is when he was -- the formulations committing -- the foreign relations committee. i testified on behalf of the vietnam veterans against the war, and when i was elected to the u.s. senate in 1984, i fought with my staff 438 solid day is over or serving on the foreign relations committee -- i fought with my staff for three solid days over serving on the foreign relations committee. i was determined to get on the foreign relations committee, and i have been there ever since." ladies and gentlemen, john kerry. [applause] >> tomm, thank you very much -- tom, thank you very much. i had totally forgotten that i was that candid. [laughter] i made a very wise decision. everybody was pulling their hair out and saying, "we do not do anything anymore." what a pleasure to be here. it is really a pleasure to be here. i am honored to be here with many of my colleagues, beginning, of course, with the ranking member, my friend, joe biden's friend, an extraordinarily respected colleague, and dick lugar is here, too, and everybody here just wants to say thank you for everything you stand for. [applause] dick, dick is an absolutely -- a statement. it is said that a politician is a man who understands government. a statesman is a politician who has been dead for 10 years. but the truth is, as we all know, dick lugar has managed to transcend that, and bob from tennessee, i am delighted he is here -- from georgia, and from my neighboring state of new hampshire -- and earlier, we had a number of other members drop by. i want to thank each of the members that i just named. they are interlocal, thoughtful members -- they are integral, thoughtful members. i am very grateful to them for the diligence they use and their ability to put aside the the sometimes-partisan division, which is what we need to do on that committee. i want to thank the historical society for bringing us together tonight. we are really a privilege. all of the members -- we are really privileged, all of the members. it is a force for bringing our nation's history alive and for creating all kinds of exhibits, helping young kids to come to this place and understand their own history, and more and more, i think everybody would agree that that is really important because it helps to put the business of the country ahead of politics. i think all of my colleagues would agree with me -- find ways out of this current predicament. the country is as divided as i can remember at any time of public life, from the 1960's and the 1970's about war, but we are now divided between red and blue, the coasts, the heartland, secular and religious. sometimes i am reminded of william faulkner's words. at times, we feel that way. the full quote was from shakespeare about sound -- about fury. i am not going to go there. i think it is safe to say that we are all long way away except in the great moments where we do we are a long way -- i think it is safe to say that we are a long way away except in great moments. "we thanked -- thank thee that thy servant, in a time that called for greatness, and grew into greatness -- greatness, grew into greatness," and i am thankful for all of the ambassadors here, because they understand how much the world is changing, how complicated relationships are, and how important it is for all of us in all of our country's -- countries to summon us to something bigger, to greatness. we have been blessed to have a guy like dick lugar, whether he served as chairman or served as ranking member, he has always been a student of public affairs. he tried to find common ground. tributen's letter is a to that. i have seen him worked -- work. it has been a vision. reaching out and taking some of those kinds of risks. but even with the great satan of the former soviet union, richard lugar was able to reach out and make things happen. i remember as a young senator, just arrived, and actually, a member of my family -- this is not something i have talked about much in the city -- a governor of the philippines back in the early 1900's, so i had a fascination with the new weapons because of family involvement there for some period of time -- i had a fascination with the philippines because of family involvement there for some period of time. this relationship between him and his people and us and them -- i came back, and the first thing i did with the foreign relations committee is to put in a resolution to link or aid, and marcos responded by calling an election and saying, " i am going to -- "i am going to prove to the united states who is in charge here." the national movement for free philippines. a cathedral i attended, an extraordinary mass. that was a place where we saw these 13 women come out, midnight, and the only lights were the television cameras, and each told of the numbers they were putting in -- the numbers they were putting in were not the numbers coming out on the board, in the election was being stolen, -- and the election was being stolen, and dick said we have to call this the way we see it. we rushed back, met with president reagan, and dick lugar and others changed history with that even. it is remarkable. that is what the foreign relations committee membership can do. chuck is another guy who understands that. he continues to do it. i respect so much his willingness to speak out directly, his constancy, when he was here, in being able to take on his own party at times, but just speaking, to use the horrible cliche, of truth to power. we took a trip to afghanistan, and we were in one province, and during the flight back, we got involved in some snowstorm in the helicopters. man, i will never forget this chopper pilot, suddenly in a panic diving, and we went down in an emergency landing on the top of this mountain, in mass es of snow, and the whole time, the general was briefing us, and he never stopped briefing us. [laughter] we were in crash mode, and we choked -- joked that we should give a speech, and we would be airborne again with hot air. we, first of all, thought we would assign one of us to give a speech and talk them down, and then we decided that is not going to work, so we set up a snowball squadron, and finally, we were rescued by a bunch of humvees, and we had to drive down the mountain in this long escort, so there are these wonderful memories that come with these journeys, sitting on a plane late at night and talking about the problems of the world, and i would just say to you quickly, i do not want to abuse my privilege year, -- here, it is a great privilege for me being able to serve for some period of time, and it is up to the american people what happens, so i always viewed this with a certain contemporary nest -- a certain temporary- ness. i did cut my teeth testifying. and it was a very different time in the senate, where you can find relationships on the other side, building them, make things happen. i want that senate to come back. it is certainly what the founding fathers intended, but we are facing now a world that is obviously profoundly changing, and nobody can put that genie back in the bottle. nobody can. there is only one way to respond to this world, and it is try to tame the worst courses of globalization, and i believe that can be done. the foreign relations committee is probably one of the world's greatest -- to do that. it is an extraordinary bully pulpit. we will have a hearing on human trafficking. pandemic around the planet. there are many other things that we're obviously working on. we will soon be talking about people with disabilities and rights, and needless to say, the new historic treaty, the chemical weapons convention. so much has happened through this committee, and it was mentioned in the beginning what happened with respect to the early times of the committee. the alaska purchase in 1867. the accomplishment of the united nations. the passage of the truman doctrine, and, of course, not least, the rebuilding of europe and japan after a war where the united states, against the will of the american people -- they were not in support of the marshall plan, but, today, no one could argue that it was not essential to the ultimate transformation of the former soviet union into the freedom of people in eastern europe and to a remarkable sense of possibilities for people who had lived under the yoke of totalitarianism 40 along. those things, out of this committee. those are the possibilities -- those things come out of this committee. those are possible. i worked for teddy kennedy. many of us were greatly changed by the assassination of president kennedy and then robert kennedy, and i will never forget the words, "i dream things that never were and asked -- ask why not," and the evening is special not only because it brings us together to celebrate the foreign relations committee and its past accomplishments, but a reminder of the debt that we owe to those who preceded us on this committee and set an example of what it could achieve and what we can be, so i think we can learn by the way they conducted business. i also think we all need to remember, you know, what is happening in the middle east is the most significant change since the end of the ottoman empire, certainly, and it is up for grabs. today, i talked with secretary sherman, and secretary clinton is in hanoi, and we need to do things to help egypt move forward. as difficult as that may be in terms of politics. one-quarter of the world's arab ts -- the world's population has challenges. the possibility of peace in the middle east as well as what our national security picture is going to look like for some time to come, so we have to have the vision to understand that we are connected. we also need to understand that our economy is not something over here, separate from all of our aspirations. to do the things we want to do, to be indispensable nation that people view us as being, it is imperative for us to make better choices about our economy, -- to be the indispensable nation that people view us as being. that is what foreign policy is, a balance. sometimes your interests are bigger than your values, and sometimes your values are bigger. i am convinced of this. we are an exceptional nations. we talk about american exceptionalism to the point where it grates on other countries and probably should, but there is something exceptional, i would say to you, but it is not a birthright. it is not on automatic pilot. we have only been an exceptional when we make the choices that make us exceptional, and we need to remember that it is not a slogan or a sound bite. it is when we increase our values and interests in the best way that advance the cause of our nation and also advance the cause of our fellow human beings on this planet. that is the way the foreign relations committee should define itself in my judgment. thank you for ordering it. -- honoring it. [applause] >> senator kerry, thank you for your current, past, and future leadership on the foreign relations committee, and let's hope we can go back to some of the old ways of working together, both sides of the aisle. i know as a house member, there is a lot of challenges in that body. richard lugar is a true gentleman . he is a universally respected voice for the development and implementation of a bipartisan foreign policy. as a gracious in defeat as he has always been in victory, he is one of the giants -- as gracious in defeat as he always has been in victory, he is one of the giants. probably his lasting legacy will be the reduction of nuclear war and nuclear weapons in the world. dick's passion for seeking long- term solutions to complex foreign policy problems instead of opting for the slogans and short-term political and manages is best summed up in his books -- book. dick, i do not know if you ever get any of the money, but i read your book on a kindle, so that money should someday find its way to you. here is what he wrote in 2004. >> too often, the motivation for important national security positions of both parties is driven by politics. they are disconnected from any credible analysis. a consensus foreign policy cannot be wished back into being, nor can it be manufactured overnight in response to an immediate crisis. it can only be restored gradually over time with the development of mutual trust between congress and the executive branch." dick lugar, we will miss you. we feel we have a loss, and thank you. [applause] >> chairman tom, i am so indebted to you for your thoughtfulness and your friendship. ronald sarasin, we are honored, and there are the attributes of my good friend john kerry. we had a wonderful time on the committee, and john cited the philippines as an adventure, but there were so many. i just appreciate all of our colleagues on the committee being here tonight and the distinguished ambassadors, and we are grateful to each one of you for honoring the committee and honoring the historical society on its anniversary. i want to think again the capitol historical society for offering -- i want to thank again the historical society. with the comprehensive research efforts of very diligent staff members, i hope you will forgive the indulgences of their findings. i want to make some comments. by my count in the history of the senate, only five members have served 30 years or more on the committee. all five began their service in the second half of the 20th century. this is partially attributable to increasing life expectancy in to the fact that many members of the committee during the 19th century and early 20th century did not begin their foreign service service until 6, 8, or even 10 years in. john kerry had the foresight to join immediately. it has been far more common in recent decades for freshmen to be granted a seat on the foreign relations committee than before. chris dodd and another gain a seat -- gained a seat on the committee and held it. another served 32 years, having gained a seat in his fourth year as a senator. at the end of this year, i will have served 34 years on the committee, joining vice- president biden, who reached that tenure before he was elected to his current position. both of us gained a seat on the committee after two years in the senate. vice-president biden also holds the distinction of being the third foreign relations committee chairman to become vice president of the united states. it is an understatement to say that he is having much more success in his role than his two predecessors. the first chairman to become vice president had tuberculosis when he was elected and died only 25 days into his vice presidential tenure. he holds the record of the fewest days served of an elected a u.s. executive office. even president harrison, who became sick after exposing himself to a rainstorm on his inauguration day, managed to last a full month in office. the other chair of the foreign relations committee who was vice president was lincoln's first vice president. he spent much of his vice presidency in his home state of maine, a difficult platform from which to influence policy in washington, d.c., and he was much more fortunate than william king in that he survived his term, -- like senator kerry, my first contact with the committee was even before i became a senator. i was awarded a rhodes scholarship. i arrived at oxford, and i was told of tutorial work. in my first year of residence at the college, emboldened by stories, i decided to write to a senator who was a member of the senate foreign relations committee but not yet its chairman. he was in the midst of an in battled relationship with senator joseph mccarthy of wisconsin region -- he was in the midst of an in battle -- embattled relationship with senator joseph mccarthy of wisconsin. i senator fulbright and i shared common experiences. senator fulbright and i won scholarships and chose to study at pembroke college. both of us focused much attention on it government and economics at oxford. both of us were blessed with the same tudor. -- tutor. both of us were elected from states in the interior of the u.s. that were not associated with international interests. both of us sought a weat on the foreign relations committee and ascended to the chairmanship. senator fulbright holds the record as the longest serving chairman of the foreign relations committee, a tenure in stretching from 1959 to 1974. my tenure as chairman was only six years, but i hold the record of the most time elapsed between my first and second chairmanships, 16 years. i did not have the pleasure of serving with senator fulbright and the senate. he left office two years before i was elected. but his influence on my career was profound and permanent. he was especially generous to me when i became chairman of the committee in 1985 for the first time. what senator fulbright understood is the main function of the foreign relations committee is oversight of the administration's policy. the committee is responsible for substantial areas of legislation, including the state department budget, for assistance, and treaties. in most years, its biggest impact comes from its role as partner and counterweight to the administration's actions on a global scale. the role of the committee is to constantly question the president's foreign policy activities. reinforcing some and we directing or opposing others. to some degree, every committee exercise oversight. in my experience, no committee has such a broad expanse of activities to monitor. this is reflected in the fact that in many years, we hold more hearings than any other senate committee. we also send more nominees to the senate than any other committee, with the possible exception of the judiciary committee. confirmation hearings on hundreds of nominees are served to vet the nominees and review our policy towards individual countries were represented, partly because of this fast oversight role, chairman and ranking member, i have attempted to encourage members with a few years of experience to stay on the committee, to build continuity and expertise. i believe the senate of the united states foreign policy in general benefits of having experienced members who are willing to commit to a long-term service on the foreign relations committee through many presidential administrations. but retaining members has become an increasing challenge in recent years. on the republican side, our conference on rule prohibiting simultaneous service on any two of the super 8 committees, appropriations, finance, foreign relations, has led to many short tenures. conference rules on the other side of the aisle are more lenient. the democrats are also seeing turnover. beyond conference dynamics, most members of the committee must deal with the reality that f ew political benefits come from devoting oneself to the foreign relations committee. on the plus side, our members are invited to appear on sunday morning talk shows more often than most. and service on the committee is someone said -- sometimes seen as a useful credential when seeking higher office but the foreign relations committee and has a difficult platform from which to appeal for campaign funds. and there is a very little public spending that flows to this committee to constituents. absent a series global crisis, foreign policy tops the list of concerns -- rarely tops the list of concerns of voters. the committee depends heavily on members who want to devote a substantial portion of their service to foreign policy and national security regardless of other roles they play in the senate. and my hope is that many more good senators will continue to come forward to embrace this role. i thank each one of you tonight for your contributions to the committee, for recognizing its importance and its members, for recognizing the historical importance of the committee to the senate into our country. may god continue to bless the united states senate, its foreign relations committee, and especially may god bless america, the country we love to serve hot. thank you very much. [applause] >> during his 12 years in the senate, chuck hagel served as a member of the foreign relations committee. today, as chairman of the elected council and co-chair of the president's intelligence advisory board as well as a member of the secretary of defense's policy board, the senator continues to play a leading role in the development of america's foreign policy. 2008, chuck wrote a book he titled "america, our next chapter." he was kind enough to give me a signed copy. i read it for this occasion, hoping to find a passage that would serve as his introduction. i want up identifying 13. don't worry. i reduced it down to two. the first passage happens in the first paragraph of his book. "of all, i think of myself as an american. if you had asked my dad, he would have said the same thing. that is how we thought in nebraska, in ainsworth. there were 100 other towns in the western part of the state, a couple of churches, a hardware store, a movie theater that always had a double feature, two gas stations, and an american legion post. it was the kind of town where if you roll down your car windows and turned the radio out loud, you could hear buddy holly singing peggy sue from one end of main street to the other. now we know of his favorite song was. just down the road, my great grandfather and great grandmother lived in an apartment above the bakery across the street from the drugstore. they shared their small apartment with two grown sons, wounded vets of world war ii, who got by on disability pension. eventually, huck and tom would leave that nebraska town and find themselves in the jungles of vietnam, serving side by side, there were both severely wounded by the viet cong in a land mine explosion. able to survive through the night. of that experience, he wrote, from that day on, i was a changed person. i remember a strong resolve coming over me as i were chopper climbed over the canopy of the jungle and i watched the steam rise above that in the morning light. i made myself a promise that if i ever got out of this place, was ever in a position to do something about it, i would make sure that war so horrible, so and riddled with suffering, i would do whatever i could to stop it. i've never forgotten that promise. i made it to myself but also to everyone who answers the call to serve their country. i think of it every day, because once you set a war in motion, its consequences are the ones least intended and they are always on controllable." chuck haglel. [applause] >> tom, thank you. i am grateful for the opportunity to be here for many reasons. to my not old but longtime friend, ron serenson, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, we got acquainted on the fifth floor of the cannon building. this is too high class a g roup. was rightn's office next to the closet. and he performed admirably. his wardrobe consisted, no unlike congressman coleman's, of the wide lapel jacket, much like a horse blanket. they have two -- to havae two gillman of the caliber and the kind of public servants they work -- two of that caliber to lead the u.s. historical society, congratulations on the anniversary and what you are doing with this institution. i do not know of anything more important than to preserve history, to apply that history to our future generations. mr. scruggs is here. here is a man who has made some contribution to that effort. the memorial he was responsible for leading, it would not have been built without him. [applause] it was testimony, yes, to those who served and those who made the ultimate sacrifice, but memorials are built for the future. memorials are billed for the next generation and the next generation. they are billed to remind us and to recognize the great virtues nobleness ofthe man. of course, it's a high privilege to be here with two for relations chairmen. between them, i believe 62 years of service on the foreign relations committee, and you add to that vice-president biden's service, the three of them represent about 100 years of service. that is a rather significant amount of time and a significant contribution to this country. for all the reasons you have heard tonight from these two gentleman to my former colleagues, some were here tonight, to new members of the foreign relations committee that i did not have the privilege of serving with, thank you for what you continue to do for our country. one of i think the most important parts of this job, one of the great privileges of this job is to recognize a first of all, we are. we are not republicans. we're not democrats. we are americans. i was often asked, but senator, you oppose your party or you challenge for president. i would as cheerfully as i knew how respond, i am the united states senator. i am a united states senator representing nebraska. i have a philosophy about government which happens to fit the republican party, at least my interpretation. but i am not a republican senator. i am a united states senator who happens to be republican. and i think the foreign relations committee and it's been eloquently noted here tonight by two of the very best preserved in this business, have clearly articulated that. there was no one in this room that does not understand what they said or has not witnessed this. the colleagues on the committee here tonight and the staff see it up close every day. i also want to recognize char lugar for her service. for what youyou, have meant and the contributions to have made to not only dick but the senate. [applause] supporters. this society, no institution can exist without the financial support and the resignation -- recognition of the worthiness of the institution. so all of you who have faithfully contributed continue to contribute, continue to write or checks. is that correct? that's a big part of this. thank you. my remarks are going to build on what our two chairmen have talked about and that is the framing of the foreign relations committee. like john kerry and dick lugar and joe biden, as the vice- president noted in his letter, like every senator here, when you get here, you have to make some choices. if you are freshmen, you have limited choices, but you make choices about committee assignments. in the senate, you have more of a menu, more of an agenda, a variety. and i recall the day after i was elected to the senate, november, 1996, the world herald sat down with me and we did an interview. the first question i was asked was, is there any member of the senate that you would like to emulate? is there any member of the senate you would like to model your career after? i responded by saying, not being yet a wise senator but hopefully all wise senator, all the senators. all had made great contributions, all have something to say and it is important for our country. i said, yes there is one senator who are very much would like to model my service after and that is dick lugar from indiana. that appeared on the front page of the evening edition. my noting it was dick lugar who i had most of my. second question was what committee assignments do you think you would like to see? without hesitation i said, foreign relations committee. i do not think that was surprising to the reporter who was doing the interview was the political reporter who had been around for four years in nebraska -- for 40 years in nebraska, because he had noted, in august of that year, i gave a major, not of the quality of kerry-lugar-biden, a meager effort, a major foreign relations speech at the university of nebraska in august, when everybody was gone. and the reporters were a bit surprised probably by the vacuousness of the content, but they were generous and gave me some considerable notation, but the question they posed to me was, why would you give a foreign relations speech in nebraska? we have never followed a senate candidate who no one knows, who has not held public office, and he would give a major foreign policy address. well, when that same reporter asked me the question, what committees are you going to try to get seats on i said immediately, foreign relations. he said why? and of course, not unlike what john kerry and dick lugar had noted and everyone in this room knows it, especially the members on the committee today, you cannot raise money on that. in this kind of a dead end committee. what does it do? nobody cares. i said, you are wrong. the foreign relations committee, of all the committees in the senate frames america's interests more than any committee. when you think about it it does. it is not just the things that john and dick talked about, the oversight and all the things that dick talked about in his item as asian and his agenda that the foreign relations committee does. but it is the 19 additional responsibilities that most people do not have any idea that come under the jurisdiction of the committee. i will give you an example of that. many of you in this room will remember -- i know my most learned colleagues will -- 1997-1998, there was an asian currency crisis that began with the russian ruble, then the baht, and it affected markets. i was also on the banking committee. bob corker and i served on that committee together. and i remember the chairman at the time saying, the banking committee will take control of that. jesse helms as chairman. and jesse and his staff, and some staff members might recall this, said the banking committee does not have jurisdiction. the foreign relations committee has jurisdiction. i happened to be a very jr. chairman of the subcommittee that was the international policy -- international policy committee. i got that subcommittee because no one else wanted it. that was fine with me. i was a chairman of something. i knew it was important but nothing really has happened. when this happened, i became very popular with bob rubin, the treasury secretary, and president clinton. the fact was, that demotto and phil graham were outraged and said, you are wrong. and jesse said, no, read the jurisdiction. sure enough, he was right. i use that as but one example. when i say framing america's interests, again, this has been noted tonight as john kerry talked about -- economics, trade, relationships, stability, security, diplomacy, everything, everything revolves around the foreign relations committee and most of it recites inside the foreign relations committee. -- resides inside the committee. as noted here, too, the up and down of committee, not unlike markets, not unlike nations, which are clearly recounted in history, you work through those waves of different committees at different times. but when john kerry talk tonight about arthur vandenberg's comment, and everybody on the committee knows it. let me take that a little further. that comment was made by a republican senator who had been a bit of an isolationist going into world war ii. in 1946, most of you know, truman was the president. and he was facing a republican congress, senate. and arthur vandenberg became chairman of the senate foreign relations committee in 1947. that is when he said that. the significance of that statement at that time, because events are always captive to timing and to atmospherics, and to the environment, because those are the pressures that dictate and dominate all is -- leadership, consequences, votes. he said that because he recognized that that was the beginning of the cold war, after world war ii. if america was to succeed and lead what there was of the free world onto higher ground, which later as we all know through history produced the marshall plan and other such events which help stabilize a very unstable and unsure world, especially europe. there was no guarantee that york was going to turn out in any -- that europe was going to turn out the way it did turn out. but the responsible thing to do was to say what he said and work with the administration and that committee led by the republican, which you might also note, i know the members on the foreign relations committee -- it was arthur vandenberg who authored the nato resolution, which set up nato. now, i offer those two examples as further testimony of what we have been talking about tonight, what's dick and john talked about. i want to take this a little further, because i think you've got to point about foreign relations. everything that john kerry said and dick lugar about our current political environment is right. and i would suspect that no one in this room with question that america is not very happy. our congress is not happy. we're off-balance. in churchill's words, the gong of 9/11 has knocked us off balance. we have not gotten back since. we can go back to 1989 when the soviet union imploded. what that did was set in motion a dynamic of global proportions that no one has ever had to deal with before and we are still working our way through it. nato . why do we need nato? our senior members recall vividly the deport. -- the debate. we put that aside and never answered that question. in its place, we put nato enlargement. i happen to support and i think john kerry and dick lugar were strong supporters, but the other change of that was nato enlargement, which again was house in the foreign relations committee, and all the hearings were in the foreign relations committee and the decisions made in the foreign relations committee were brought out on the floor and in the house as well -- it was not so much now about what nato was 50 years before. collective security. this was as much about and maybe more about economic security for those eastern european nations that were untethered. what do we do now? that nato membership meant a tremendous validation to the new democracies because, yes, it gave them the imprimatur of nato. but far more important than that, as every business person knows, it gave investors and companies some reliability in theirinvestment in one of those countries. so this was now a different dynamic that had been introduced into the world and nato specifically that we have ever seen before. it was clearly a verify economic dynamic. i use that as just one example. that was contained in foreign relations. the 12 years that i served in the senate, greatest 12 years of my life, no privilege like it, i often have thought about those 12 years, having nothing to me. i was a fleeting steward. but you think about what john kerry talked about, what has happened in the world. what is the problem? ourselveswe bring together to find a new crowding, a purpose? we do not have a common enemy. we have a war on terrorism. what is terrorism? terrorism is a tactic. is not a philosophy. it is not a form of government. it is a tactic that has been around since man got off all fours. but there is no common purpose of anything and the greatest a fusion of economic power in the history of man has confused everybody i. these are some of the factors that are playing out. the committees in the congress -- now i want to go a little wider and my concluding remarks -- committees are damned important. they are so very important. i recognize that when i first got to the senate. everyone of my colleagues recognizes it. i did not appreciate it as much as i did at the end of 12 years, or as i do today. because what resides in that effort and process -- and process is important w. we get kicked around in washington about process. what does process do? it does not do anything. it prolongs the problem. imperfect, yes. but here is what process does. why it is critically important for society. it absorbs shocks. if you do not have a process, you cannot absorption. when something happens, and it always does, look at our world last few years -- shock, shock, shock. we have had institutions that have been able to absorb the shock. the greatest challenges are ahead of us. they have to be done to the committee work, because the committee work is the only forum, the only process that allows intelligence and intelligence and understanding, knowledge, discourse about identifying the problem, short- term, long-term, and how do we fix it. that takes consensus. rarely did i ever see, unless it was a mother's day resolution, what i voted for, come on the senate floor that was a controversial issue if it had not gone through a committee first. sand down the rough edges and try to work to the compromises of the democrat-republican amendments and come to a consensus when you voted out of the committee. there is no other way it can work. these issues are too big, too complex. after rely on the committee system, the committee structure. is more so today than ever before and will continue to be that way. so the emphasis on committees i do not think it can be overstated. the other part of that is, again something john mentioned, the interconnectedness of committees. not jurisdiction of committee oversight but how is indirect -- interconnected. there is not one part of our security, the future of 7 billion people that has not connected to everything else. energy, environment, security, economy, trade, education, jobs, religion. you name any element that drives society, has always dictated the outcome of civilizations, it is now all woven into one fiber. you are not going to fix that on the floor of the senate or the floor of the house, or my distinguished friends who are here from other countries that serve as ambassadors, as good as their parliaments are, you will not fix it in their parliament on the floor. it has got to be done through a process and the system. that is why these systems, these committees are so important. i'll end my comments this way. i do not know of anyone who has lived and recognize and worked on these issues as well and as honestly as dick lugar over has over the years. i know he has been noted tonight for that effort. you will be serious thing this. everyone recognizes that. -- you will be seriously missed. but i will say that, with the members of the senate to or coming behind you, dick. and john, i know you are not ready to leave yet. but who are coming behind you, the greatest advantage you have given, dick, and to you, john, your younger colleagues is the role modeling i began comments on tonight. because every one of these colleagues sitting here tonight watched the two of you, how you have done. i would add to biden. joe biden. that is the greatest legacy will leave. all the pieces of legislation with your names on it, leadership conference's, bills named after you, that is not real. first of all, it is not your money. is the taxpayers' money what you do leave is to leave that legacy of leadership in how you did it and you did it the right way. i have great confidence in this country because, as imperfect as our process is, as imperfect as our public servants are, and we all are, we all learn, i don't know of a group of men and women who are more committed to make a better world than those who offer themselves for public office. and if we are just wise enough to understand that and build a consensus around that, we will have differences, we should have differences, but it has to start in committees. strength of those committees is not just the academic part but get to know each other. john kerry talked about dick and others when we traveled together, we sat in planes together. i sat in an suv with joe biden for eight hours going to the turkish border into kurdistan. sitting next to joe biden for eight hours, i learned a lot. i finally had to give up and say, i cannot do it anymore. i had my mother on the phone with him, i had everybody. but you get to know the humanity. and that is what we are missing more than anything else, the humanity of the service of this noble, a noble cause. committees do that better than anybody, in any way. in committees are important probably as much for that reason as anything else. thank you, all, very much. [applause] >> chuck, thank you very much, and ladies and tenement, thank you as well. senator, for your thoughtful remarks. i want to present you with this book of architecture and decoration of the capitol. [applause] i have senator kerry. actually, you can find a way around. chuck hagel and i go back to, as he mentioned to the fifth floor of the canon building. when i was elected, i cannot get an office because i had to wait for chuck hagel and his boss to leave 511 canon. 511 canon is in that attic of the building. it is a piece of real a state that nobody wants. only one elevator goes there, two elevators no one can find you there so it was very peaceful on the fifth floor. that is where i met chuck. we have been friends for four years. senator kerry and lugar, we have momentos for you. these prints for you of washington city. we're happy to give to you to chairman john kerry. [applause] i want to thank everyone for being here today. i have to give you some instructions on how to leave this room, because after 8:00, the main door is locked. so you may not be able to get home tonight. first, i want you to look around. this is the room the titanic hearings were held in, the watergate hearings, the mccarthy hearings. this is a very, very historic room in the complex of the united states capitol. we are very grateful for the opportunity to be here. i want to thank the donors who did so much to make this evening possible. walmart, caterpillar, express scripts, exxon mobile. now the instructions on how to get out of here. guests should exit down the right quarter from the rotunda. take another right at the end of the corridor, take the elevator to the basement. the guard will direct to from there. what you are trying to do is get out of the dirksen building at . you cannot get out of this building. the doors are locked. you have to go out of the exit door in dirksen. thank you, all, for coming. this has been a wonderful evening. great comments. thank you very, very much. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> ladies and gentlemen, please take the centerpieces home with you. >> coming up on c-span, california rep and democrat lynn woolsey delivers her farewell address from the house floor. followed by a tribute by other members of congress to outgoing california representatives. mr. speaker, throughout my career in public life and even before nothing has motivated me more than a desire to end wars and violent conflict. when i was a small girl, saying bedtime ayers or making a birthday wish blowing out the candles, i always asked for world peace. so no surprise that over a decade ago i opposed the iraq war before it even started. it was appalling that we would invade a nation that hadn't provoked us, had nothing to do with 9/11, and did not have weapons of mass destruction. it was a lonely fight at that time. but i didn't do it to be loved. it was a matter of principle. barbara lee, maxinwaters, and i formed the triad, woolsey-waters-lee to organize our opposition. we held forums. we developed and out of iraq caucus. we traveled around the country. and in january, 2005, i offered the first amendment here on the house floor calling for our troops to be brought home. some of my own party thought that it was a mistake. that we wouldn't get any votes or enough votes and that we would be embarrassed. well, i told them that even if i were the only oneoting to bring our troops home, i would not be embarrassed. as it happened we got 128 bipartisan votes. that very first time. so you see, mr. speakerwhen you lead, people follow. because of a handful of progressive leaders and progressives in our country that were vocal and fearless, eventually public opinion turned. it turned against the iraq war, it turned towards peace. if we and other outspoken advocates hadn't ignored conventional wisdom and had pressed for peace and hadn't -- hadn't pressed for peace, the war in iraq could still be going on today. in april mr. speaker, of004, i started speaking from this very spot on the house floor about my strong anti-iraq war conviction. eventually these speeches focused on afghanistan where we have now been waging war for more than 11 years, despite more than 2,000 americans dead and nearly $600 billion wasted. even though we are undermining our own interests and failing to bring security and stability to afghanistan. over the last eight-plus years, i have spoken here, nearly every day that i could. to drive home what a moral disaster and strategic failure these wars have been. when constituents and others call or come up to me or write and thank me, i say, but we are still there. i don't deserve thanks until all of our troops are home. you know, mr. speaker, because you have been here for many of them, my speeches haven't just been about bringing our troops home, they have offered a new vision for global engagement. from here i have outlined my smart security platforwhich calls for development and diplomacy stead of invasions and occupations. civilian surges instead of military surges. smart security means helping other nations educate their children, care for their sick, and strengthen their democratic institution. smart security says we can make america safe by building international good will, by empowering people with humanitarian assistance instead of sending troops or launching drone attacks. it's the right thing to do, it's the smart thing to do, and it costs pennies on the dollar compared to military force. so, mr. speaker, today i'm delivering that message for the 444th time and my final time on the house floor to speak on a five minute special order. this is the last of my special order speeches on war and pea and smart security. i'm retiring from congress at the end of this year and i believe part of my legacy will be that i worked diligently for peace and a safer world. so in closing, mr. speaker, i'd like to acknowledge that sometimes i have been accused of wanting a perfect world, but i consider that a compliment. our founders strove for a more perfect union, why shouldn't we aim for a perfect world? you see, i'm perfectly and absolutely certain that if we don't work toward a perfect world, we won't ever come close to providing a safe, healthy, and secure world for our grandchildren and their grandchildren. so i thank you, mr. speaker. and i thank my wonderful staff who had helped me over the last 20 years to work for a perfect world which means peace, health, >> replacing lynn woolsey in the 113th congress will be jared huffman. he defeated daniel roberts with 70% of the vote. he will represent the second district in california after serving for six years in the state assembly. consume. mr. speaker, i rise today with my colleagues to pay special tribute to several members of the california democratic delegation. it whose service in congress is shortly coming to an end. these six members served this house and their constituents with dedication and deserve our gratitude for the hard work they have done on behalf of california and our country. representative joe baca who was elected in 2002, served for 10 years from the 43rd congressional district. representative howard berman elected in 1982 and served 30 years from the 28th district. representative bob filner sworn in this month as mayor of san diego and served for 20 years. representative laura richardson served for five years from the 37th district. representative pete stark, outgoing dean of our delegation was elected in 1972 and served more than 40 wreers from the 13th district. representative lynn woolsey served for 20 years from the 6th congressional district. much kk said about the distinguished careers of our departing colleagues, but i would like to offer a few remarks of the work i have joined them during their time here in the congress. representative howard berman has served the house for 30 years and i was honored to name him among my closest friends in this body. during his service, he worked on a wide of variety of issues and known as a champion of human rights and standing up for middle class, working class and for the poor in our country. as chair of the foreign affairs committee from 2007 to 2008, mr. berman made great progress on behalf of the less fortunate. he was a leader in securing reauthorization of our global hiv-aids program to help provide access to preventive services for millions and authored legislation removing nelson mandela and other members of the african congress on the terrorism list. finally he was a leader in raising concerns about human rights abuses around the world and key leader in bringing additional disclosure to the trade and conflict minerals that were financed the ongoing violence in the congo. he is a strong friend of israel and passionate about the need to achieve lasting peace and a broader coalition in the house of representatives. . i want to recognize mr. berman's work on behalf of immigration and those who emigrated to this country and his work on behalf of migrant workers and farm workers all across the united states. and for that effort he received the first annual farm worker justice award by the farm worker justice fund in 2000. like mr. berman, our dean, congressman pete stark, has spent his entire distinguished career in congress advocating on behalf of those voices who were often drowned out in washington by the influence of the moneyed interest. over the last 40 years, congressman stark has been one of the foremost advocates on behalf on efforts to ensure that americans were able to access quality, affordable health insurance. i am honored to have been one of the three principaled co- authors in the house of the historic affordable care act which will provide quality insurance for every single american. the key role mr. stark in drafting that law and made sure that the law provided needed relief for working families. this was a crucial accomplishment, yet it was far from mr. stark's only accomplishment in the field of health care. as a former chair and ranking democrat on the ways and means health subcommittee for many years, he was a leader on the health care reform. he was a lead author of the original cobra insurance bill which ensured that workers faced with losing their jobs would not also immediately lose access to the needed health insurance. and those of us who have gone through this recent downturn and recession in this country know from the testimony of our constituents how vital the access to cobra health insurance was to the health security for their families, to the financial security for their families. he also pie neared the efforts to make modern i.t. systems available and required within the health care systems of this country that will help us improve the outcomes of health care and hopefully drive down the cost of health care and provide better care for patients within this system. he i think along with sam gibbons of florida pie neared the idea that there should be medicare for all. and beat on -- pioneered the idea that there should be medicare for all and beat on that drum for a long time. it led to the improvements and passage of the affordable care act. he's also been obviously a campaigner on behalf of fairness in our tax code. and it's unfortunate that he's retiri from the congress because maybe we'll finally after since 1986 that we've addressed this issue, there might be a chance to get something done in the next congress. but he paved the way on so many of those issues. finally in my remarks at this moment, i'd like to highlight the work of an outstanding democrat on the subcommittee on work force protection of the education and labor committee and that is congresswoman lynn woolsey. congresswoman woolsey knows their struggles. four decades ago she was a single working mother supporting three children. she knows about the economic security of families. later as a resource manager she knew things like working families are still fighting for like paid leave, paid sick leave, retirement and health care. serving as chair and ranking member of the work force protection subcommittee, lynn woolsey was instrumental in helping to get the lilly ledbetter fair pay act signed into law and military families dealing with military deployment and injury. lynn woolsey was a partner to ensure coal miners are kept safe and healthy on the job. she went underground in a coal mine with our late colleague donald payne to require firsthand knowledge of how the workplace works and the environment in which those miners go to work every day. in the classroom, lynn woolsey continues to fight for women and working families. she was -- i want to say harsh, but i will say tough advocate. making sure that women were represented in the stem fields and the careers and women and young women had access to the sciences and to technology and to math and engineering. lynn woolsey worked to ensure kids had access at every education -- every education opportunity and a well-rounded curriculum to meet their social and emotional needs. american families have benefited from lynn woolsey's fierced a vow casey. harsh, spirited. that's our advocate, lynn. i will miss here contributions on the education committee for the years to come. she's fought tirelessly to protect the environment. most especially in the sonoma coast of san francisco bay and hopefully the president will follow her lead and designate further protections of our ocean and marine habitat in that area of our precious coast. i am very grateful for the members for the work they have done for america's middle class and the struggles -- those who struggle to join our middle class. the work they have done on behalf of their constituents and on behalf of the citizens of this country. they all came here to achieve accomplishments, to achieve success on behalf of their constituents, on behalf of this country, and they've succeeded. and i want to thank them so very much for their service, for their sacrifice, for the ingenuity, their innovation and i would say with these three for their spirited, tough, harsh, relentless pursuit of what they believed in terms of public policy and on my own behalf, i want to thank -- on behalf of our delegation and tens of millions of constituents that we represent in california, i want to thank representative baca, berman, filner, richardson, stark, woolsey for their service and their dedication. now i'd like to recognize other members of our delegation for the purposes of remarks. and i'd ask unanimous consent that i can revise and extend my remarks. mr. honda. i'll say to the members i think we have five or six or seven people. so however you use your time, be mindful of other members seeking to speak. thank you. mr. honda. mr. honda: thank you, mr. chairman. mr. speaker, it's with heavy heart but with great that i rise today and thank my departing california colleagues whose service will end at the end of 112th congress. pete stark is well-known for speaking his mind and standing up for what he believes in while giving a voice to the concerns of many who often feel as though they have none. he has helped millions of americans keep their health insurance coverage after leaving their jobs. ensure people who visit emergency rooms receive help regardless of their ability to pay and help in the affordable care act. he enacted legislation to increase the number of computers in our schools. he's been a champion on broad environmental issues like battling ozone depletion, carbon emissions and has been a proponent of peace. i am honored to gain work in fremont and hope his legacy. and his son, fish, who wrote and was published as an on ed piece independent -- op-ed piece indicating the true side, the real side of pete stark, his father. howard berman is widely known as a leader on foreign affairs, who will stand out in my mind, however, is his help while chairman of the committee on foreign affairs in moving through the committee in the house -- in house resolution 121. it was a resolution calling upon japan to apologize during the imperial army during world war ii, women forced into sexual slavery. he achieved justice for those who suffered atrocities in the past and his leadership will be missed. i also want to thank him for his leadership on the issue of pat tillman, soldier who was -- he lost his life in a firefight when in fact he was killed through -- and i want to appreciate that. lynn woolsey came to congress with a compelling story about how with the helping hand from her government she was able to raise three children by herself and have a successful career serving the people of marina and sonoma counties. she's been a tireless voice for family-friendly policies, for protecting the coastline of northern california and for bringing our troops home and ending the misguided wars in iraq and afghanistan. lynn was a leader of the congressional progressive caucus and i call her the mom of the caucus. and her passionate voice on progressive issues, she will be missed. her leadership will be missed and it will be a great vacuum for us to fill in the future. bob filner had a years' long odyssey for filipino veterans who fought along u.s. troops in world war ii but were denied benefits through their service. so the war -- the united states congress broke its promise it had made to these veterans and for decades to follow, they struggled to secure fair treatment, similar to that afforded to the men who fought alongside them. as chairman of veterans' affairs committee, bob filner was in the middle of this fight. i wish him well as he moves on to a new phase to his service to the people of san diego. jose baca, or joe baca, has been a friend of mine for a long time. school boards and all other elected offices, but since we served together in the california state assembly to the halls of congress, joe was chairman of the congressional hispanic caucus while i was chairman of the congressional asian pacific congressional caucus and we stood together to fight against harmful english-only and anti-immigrant legislation in amendments. we also share a commitment to protecting the rights of native americans. particularly tribal sovereignty. joe has been a good friend. i will miss him regularly on the house floor. perhaps in a couple of years we may see him again. i will miss laura richardson who i have had the pleasure of working with on anti-bullying issues. and end the fight to make sure that lbt families are recognized in our -- lgbt families are recognized in our family laws. and i move to a slightly larger accommodations and he was a strong voice on behalf of his central valley constituents. we also are bidding farewell to a large number of our california republican colleagues who served for many years. bilbray, mary bono mack, mr. galilee, wally herger, jerry lewis and dan lungren. while we all certainly haven't agreed on many policy i shallies over the yours -- issues over the years, i know they were committed to their constituents. and my california colleagues will be leaving at the end of the 112th congress, i wish them well. mr. miller: might i inquire of the chair the time i have left? the speaker pro tempore: 46 minutes. mr. miller: i want to yield to congresswoman lois capps. mrs. capps: i want to thank george miller for setting aside this hour and he just asked the amount of time and i take that to heart. we could all go at great lengths to all of these dear people who won't be with us in the next congress. and i add my congratulations for their service to republicans and all the democrats, all of us alike. but i will speak now for the six of our democratics colleagues who on behalf of them who will not come back. and i want to start with our dear friend, lynn woolsey, who because of whom i get compared, my progressive constituents often say to me, now, lois, why don't you vote more like lynn wolsy votes? and she -- wooledsy votes? and she was one of the first people i met. her story was compelling. as a woman member of congress, i don't know how it would be to raise kids by herself. she's a great voice and advocate for all mothers, all working families and particularly those who carry extra burdens themselves. she's put her heart and soul into her work in congress, and it shows. as i met you early on when i came here, i knew you were kind and befriended me. i know you served your constituents in the same passionate way. and i thank you for the role model you've provided me. howard berman has provided another kind of role model for me. my husband before me came to congress in part to work on middle eastern issues. and there's a go-to person in this congress that i always relied upon for advice and support in that area, and that's howard berman. he's a congressperson's congressman, in my opinion. and my human rights watch folks have held him in such high esteem. it's been a very great honor to serve almost as a neighbor to him. with his district in the central valley, san fernando valley, and mine on the coast, it's been a real joy to have him as a colleague here, and i will treasure always his role in getting me elected and also keeping me here. . i came to congress from the health care field, so the name i heard often was congressman pete stark. and been here since the 1970's. knows all about health care and i'm pleased, mr. stark, that you have been here through the passage of the affordable care act. that's a crowning jewel for you and all of us. but you have been through many health care ups and downs over the years and been a role model for me being on the ways and means committee and the house committee in energy and commerce. thank you for your service and friendship. it is hard to go through this list. mr. miller, this is a wonderful privilege to say thank you, the countless hours that you could add up for the service to constituents and the tremendous leadership within this body and these members who have given their all and will not be back at the 113th. it's important to say their names and to honor them and give them credit for what they have done. joe baca has been a fixture for the central valley and agriculture, someone who has agriculture number one in my district as well. but there is much to remember joe baca for and his contributions in agriculture and the financial services committee as well. my colleague, former colleague, bob filner, who has already assumed another position within our government, as mayor of san diego. i think of bob filner and i think of veterans' issues and he was a college professor before he came to congress, as my husband was and reached out to each other in that capacity. he has worked hard on veterans' issues. i have 50,000 veterans in my district. so the g.i. bill is often something i can give him credit for and work with my veterans with. and finally laura richardson, it's my daughter's name, but i think of her beautiful singing voice and to my colleague who has given tremendous leadership within the congress as well, but you'll take your beautiful voice with you. i have been able to work with laura on transportation issues as they relate particularly to our ports, because she is known for her work with the port of long beach and i have ports in my district as well. and will be missed on the women's softball team. we are friends here. we are colleagues here. we bring our human qualities. and we bring our leadership skills. and the california delegation makes me proud every day and in the next congress, it will be the memories and the service that has been given to us from these colleagues of ours. and that's why i thank you, mr. miller, for setting aside this hour for us to share our thoughts. >> i saw that andrew and hunter are here. the stark kids. i would like to yield to congresswoman barbara lee. ms. lee: thank you very much. and i want to thank you, congressman miller, for organizing this special order tonight. first to congressman pete stark, who is our departing dean of the california delegation, congressman stark represents a district right next door to my district in the east bay of california, northern california. i just have to say, i have known congressman stark since i was the president of the black student union at mills college in the early 1970's. and i will never forget this. i wrote then my congressman stark a letter on behalf of the students at mills college with a request and he responded so quickly. and replied to that request in a positive way. so on behalf of all those students then, congressman stark, and on behalf of myself today, i just want to say thank you, thank you for demonstrating what exemplary constituent service was all about. i have known congressman stark probably more than most members here because i had the privilege to work with a great statesman and known congressman stark during that period. we always say we have some of the most outspoken and well informed and engaged people in this nation, and congressman stark certainly has been at the forefront of making sure that his district became closer to our federal government and brought the government to the people of his district. and so the east bay thanks you, congressman stark yt and our entire delegation thanks you for so many years of great public service. i was fortunate to be on the house foreign aquares committee with chairman howard berman. and i tell you, howard berman's understanding of global affairs is unmatched. also, i just have to say, he was such a tremendous asset in our global fight against hiv-aids and really got it so early and helped us negotiate and put together the bills that have been so successful in moving us toward an aids-free generation. i have to say with regard to chairman berman, i appreciate his fairness and his objectivity and his commitment to global peace and security. it's an honor to have served with him and i'm going to miss him because i honor him as my friend and i know all of us are going to miss him. but i know we will work with him in the future on so many issues that he cares about. congressman filner is leaving a strong legacy of support for our nation's veterans who have benefit touchdown tremendously from his knowledge and impassioned add vow cast si. congressman filner was a freedom rider and brought the spirit of justice to his work here in congress. congressman filner has done an exemplary job as ranking member and chair of the veterans affairs committee, as we have heard earlier and our entire caucus can be proud of his outstanding leadership. and as the daughter of a veteran, i understand very deeply those obligations that our nation has to those men and women who have served. i had the privilege and honor to help in his campaign and i have been in san diego with bob, the love and the affection that his constituents have for congressman filner is just really unparalleled. i want to congratulate him for his magnificent win. it was a tough campaign, but he did an unbelievable job and that's because people in his district really knew him and he had provided the level of services that allowed him to be elected now as -- we will call him very soon, mayor filner. joe baca, congressman baca, has been a voice for the poor and underserved during his entire career, not only here in congress but in the california legislature. i was privileged to work with joe on many, many issues, and he has been a consistent voice, both in the california legislature and now here in congress, for protecting low-income families from unfair predatory and credit practices. he has used his seat on the house agricultural committee and house financial services committee to help the most vulnerable americans. he has consistently played a role in raising funding levels for food stamps and nutrition programs to feed over 44 million hungry americans. he was a powerful voice against anti-immigrant laws and built bridges on the history of our nation. we will miss his principal leadership and his passion for serving as a voice for the voiceless in congress. and my fellow congressional black caucus member, laura richardson, she has many accomplishments during her brief time. she has worked hard to improve our nation's infrastructure and been advocate for inclusion of minority and women-owned businesses and opened up economic opportunities and strengthened our schools. i know she is going to move forward to make more contributions in public service because she is focused and dedicated elected official. i have to pay tribute to my sister, lynn woolsey and i can't say what a bittersweet season this is after seeing you work so many issues. lynn woolsey has made sure that this body recognizes that peace is patriotic. and she has spoken 444 times on the floor as it relates to the needs to bring our young men and women home. and i look forward to our continuing work. she has been a role model for me. and i have to say finally in conclusion, she understands the importance of the safety net and brought the perspective that comes from relying on public assistance during lean times in her life and gave me the courage to talk about my time on public assistance, which was so difficult for me. to all of our departing members, i'm going to miss you, but we'll see you at home and will continue to fight the good fight. mr. miller: i would like to recognize congresswoman matsui. ms. matsui: i would like to thank the gentleman from california, mr. miller, for yielding time to me and bringing us together. mr. speaker, when the 113th congress starts next year, we will be greeting many new colleagues and we'll have to say good-bye to some of our current colleagues both republican and democrat. we are saying good-bye to six members, representative stark, berman, woolsey, filner, baca and richardson. while in congress, these members served a strong advocates for their constituents for california and for our country. for the many years of service, these six members have ap depth of institutional knowledge that will be missed come next congress. first of all, i want to pay tribute to my good friend, congressman howard berman. howard berman has served for 30 years. i first met howard when he was living in my hometown of sacramento. he was serving in the state legislature at the time. his daughter and my son were in pre-kindergarten together, so we would see each other as we dropped off our kids. little did we know then that we would end up being friends, both serving here in congress. you know, we have all learned a lot from howard. we have learned to depend on him, his counsel and his advice. his knowledge and leadership, particularly on foreign affairs have been invaluable to congress. his absence from this chamber will be strongly felt and he will be sorely missed, but will forever be a friend. congresswoman lynn woolsey, has been a strong advocate for families during her time in congress. she was also one of the founding members of the out of iraq caucus where she acted as a leading proponent of bringing our brave servicemen and women home from war. she fought for those whose voices were often not heard and for add vow cast si and spirit will be missed. as the dean of the democratic california delegation, congressman pete stark has been a leader and mentor to many members from california over the years. he has been a chairman on health care issues for a very long time and his work on the affordable care act improved the law and helped ensure all americans access to affordable and quality health care. we will remember his very important contribution. congressman bob filner, ranking member on the committee of veterans affairs and helped to ensure owe returning veterans have the services they need. we'll miss him here in congress, but i know he'll make a mark as mayor in the city of san diego. joe baca has been a strong advocate for california's agricultural industry while in congress. he has worked on behalf of the workers themselves, making sure they received the civil and legal rights they deserved. congresswoman laura richardson has worked hard to keep america safe as a member of the homeland security committee. her constituents are unwavering and she will be missed next year. california is a large state with many needs and priorities, but our delegation is strong. during the time in office, these members have been esteemed colleagues and it's been an honor to work along side of them. their knowledge, passion and commitment to public service will be greatly missed in these halls. and i wish to thank each of them for their service and wish them the best in the next adventure. i yield back. mr. miller: i recognize congresswoman eshoo. ms. eshoo: i want to thank -- did you want to know how much time you had left first? the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman has 29 minutes. mr. miller: we're fine. thank you. you're fine. ms. eshoo: thank you. i want to thank the gentleman from california, my dear friend, mr. miller, for organizing this special order tonight. so that we can take some time, which is the most precious thing really that god gives us is time. and pay tribute to our colleagues who have spent their time being giants in terms of representation and fighting on behalf of their constituents, bringing honor to the house of representatives and to our country. some of the best exports of the bay area and of our state of california. i want to start with the dean of our delegation, congressman pete stark. we salute you, pete. for all that you have given and done. it's an extraordinary record for 40 years in the house of representatives. your name has been synonymous with health care, consistently for all of that period of time. for fighting for a place in that health care system, for people that are unknown to so many in our society and rejected. you made room for them in the emergency room. and wrote a law that no one would be mistreated. in fact they have to be treated before they were asked whether they had health insurance or not. your record is replete with great and good things. on behalf of your constituents, on behalf of those that so much of society has overlooked. and i know that those blessings will come back to you in a very rich and meaningful way as you depart this place. we will miss you. and i thank you for your personal kindnesses, for all the wonderful things that you have done. and the bay area delegation will miss you enormously. next i want to pay tribute to howard berman. to congressman howard berman. this is really hard to do. congressman berman's name is synonymous with the following, with farm workers and their rights. with human rights around the world. anyone that has met and worked with him respects him. it matters not what side of the aisle they have ever come from or what country they come from or what agency they have worked in. howard berman is -- has been the indispensable member in this chamber. when he took over the leadership of the foreign relations committee we saw a new and inspired leadership there, demanding a recognition of the armenian genocide. and he served as the original co-sponsor of that legislation. his record is replete with distinction. replete with distinction. and, howard, in our delegation i don't think there's anyone -- we will all miss you in a very, very deep and special way. this house will miss you because you brought honor to it in everything that you have done. so it is bittersweet. no, it's just bitter. there isn't any sweetness to it. but i know that when i speak of you and really can't bring enough words to one of the most distinguished records over 30 years that any member of congress could ever put together , that the american people thank you, freedomlovers and human rights advocates around the world appreciate and bless your name and i know that together with janice, with lindsay, you haven't seen the last of us. we're going to keep coming after you. and to lynn woolsey, my classmate, we came here, we couldn't even find our way to the credit union. we were so terrified. but together we came and lynn has brought an exceptional voice to families and to women. so often women heading up those families. and she spoke through the prism of her own experience, which is the most powerful story that anyone can ever tell. no one could ever say to lynn woolsey, you don't know what you're talking about. because they knew that she lived it, that she had experienced it and she came here to change so many women's lives, the lives of families, in terms of education for women and girls, for stronger family benefits. i could go on and on. and she brought great voice and vision to the unfortunate policy , the march to folly, when we invaded iraq. she came to this floor over 100 times to speak against that invasion and we are all -- we are all in her debt for her conscience, for her integrity, for her wonderful voice, for her friendship and for the -- her love of the environment of the coast of california. which if there is ever the magical touch of almighty god, you see it there. and she has called on the president and the congress to make sure the protections will be there for -- in perpetuity. we will remember you in per pute, lynn, and i -- perpetuity, lynn, and i ask that every bless you brought to your -- blessing you brought to your constituents in this house will come back to you. to our republican colleagues, jerry lewis, elton gallegly, wally herger, mary boneow mack, dan lungren and david dreier, we thank you. i thank you for your service to the people of this country in this, the house of the people, the magnificent house of representatives. thank you. mr. miller: i'd like now to recognize the leader, the democratic leader, congresswoman nancy pelosi. ms. pelosi: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank you for yielding, mr. miller. i know that we have a time limitation so i will begin by associating myself with the remarks of congresswoman eshoo who speak so -- spoke so beautifully and knowledgeably about our colleagues who are leaving from -- who are from california, who are leaving. i rise today to thank my colleagues who are friends and our partners from the great state of california. the members we honor in this special order, i'm going to just do this because it's way down low. demonstrate the extraordinary divert of our great -- diversity of our great state. they hail from the greater los angeles area to san diego. they bring california's wide range of interests and aspirations to the floor of the house every day. working side by side with the entire california delegation, their service, our service has been -- has strengthened the golden state, the commitment of our departing members has strengthened the congress, their achievements have advanced the character of our country. each of these members has brought a unique voice to the table, yet each shares the same core values, a devotion to public service, a dedication to opportunity, a belief in a promise of america. congresswoman woolsey spent her career fighting to improve the education of our children, the economic security of their families and the protection of our workers, as well as that coastline. with her departure i won't -- departure, i won't say retirement, because she's not a retiring person, the bay area loses a powerful advocate in congress and the nation loses a tireless progressive leader. it was i think mr. miller who said 400 times that lynn woolsey came to the floor to speak against the war in -- our involvement in the war in iraq. thank you, congresswoman woolsey. so it's about the patriotism of this congress and of the participation as patriots of our colleagues from california. whether it's the education of our children, whether it is the health of our people as demonstrated by congressman pete stark. we all owe you, pete stark, a great debt of gratitude. he has been a fixture in the fight to build and strengthen the pillars of health and economic security for the american people from his seat on the ways and means committee to the house floor, he always remained a fierce fighter for medicare and for a passionate advocate for the affordable care act, because he believed that health care is a right for all americans, not a privilege just for the few. his legacy will live long and have stronger support for the well-being of our seniors, our families and middle class. i hope it is a source of pride. i know it is to your family. that so many of your colleagues respect you so much. and honor your leadership and service here. as has been mentioned, congressman filner left us, he's already the mayor of san diego. he was a freedom fighter who fought for civil rights and equality. he was a representative of san diego who never waivered in support of our veterans and he served as the chair of that committee. we wish him well as mayor of san diego. congresswoman richardson has dedicated her time in congress to rebuilding infrastructure, advancing the dream of high speed rail, securing our borders and protecting our environment. we wish her well as she goes forward. congressman berman, we go from b to w. berman to woolsey. and every wonderful thing in between. has spent a -- congressman berman's imprint can be found on legislation across the broad spectrum of issues before the house. many of us knew him long before he came to congress, knew of his work, working with farm workers, working labor law to protect the rights of workers. and two particular areas, his expertise is simply unsurpassed. he's a true expert on international relations, a past chairman of the foreign affairs committee, ranking member now, a champion of aid to israel, a fight against hiv-aids, and the toughest iran sanctions in the history of our country. he is a senior member of the judiciary committee who it's safe to say understands intellectual property, understands their importance, even mentioned in our constitution, and he understands the challenges and the opportunities they present. and every venue and every arena he has been a proud advocate for los angeles and california. a cherished leader for the entire house. joe baca is a lifelong public servant, a paratrooper in the u.s. army, look at this, the 101st airborne and the 82nd airborne divisions. he served california state legislature. he made his mark standing firm against harmful and an ty immigrant measures and leading -- anti-immigrant measures and leading on food stamps. it's fraught with meaning. a lot of work and leadership he put into it in the farm bill. joe baca came from humble beginnings, yet his accomplishments are truly significant. the list goes on and on of our colleagues that congresswoman eshoo mentioned. all of these members, public service has been a calling, a cause and a core facet of their character. california has been proud to have them as our representatives in congress. for those of us who served with them, it's an honor for each of us to call you colleagues. for some of us, a very, very special honor to be considered your friend. we all wish you -- we each wish of you much success in the years ahead. we look forward to coming -- continuing our work together on behalf of our great golden state of california. your service in congress added to the luster of our golden state. thank you and congratulations. mr. miller: i thank the leader. if i might inquire of the time available. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman has 15 minutes remaining. mr. miller: next i'd like to recognize congressman sam far -- farr. mr. farr: thank you very much, mr. speaker. and thank you, george miller, for setting aside this time. you've heard from a lot of my colleagues. i think what is interesting about this moment in history is this is probably the largest retirement ever of any delegation at any one time. california is losing 25% of its incumbent delegation. seven republicans and seven democratless. that's 14 people that have been here and of the seven democrats, they were here for historical moments of electing nancy pelosi from california, the first woman speaker of the house of representatives, and here to pass the first in history comprehensive health care bill. led by californians, i might add, and led by the dean of our delegation, pete stark. pete stark is one of the oldest, longest serving members of congress, been here 40 years. i think there's only two, three people that have served here longer and he's watched this delegation come and go since 1973. he's here tonight with his beautiful family and it's a wonderful, interesting -- pete, of all the people coming into congress, is the only one that came just right from the private sector. most of us got elected to local and state governments. but pete came right here right out of, you know, the background at m.i.t., in engineering, and then a degree from berkley in business administration in 1963. he founded the security national bank of walnut creek which became during the war years known as the progressive bank and the bank that was going to loan to people that weren't otherwise getting loans. and he became a very popular leader in his community, built the bank into a $1 billion financial institution. having a background in the air force and other civic activities, he ran for congress and got elected and has been here, as i said, for 40 years and he's here tonight with his children. he also has four daughters and three sons and eight grandchildren and married to deborah rod rick, also of california. . we are going to miss pete. followed also by howard berman from southern california, background at ucla and law degree from ucla. i was a staff member when he was a california legislator. he came with a background in vista and got elected to the house and has been the leading ranking democrat, probably the most trusted person in congress for foreign affairs. and with his background in labor issues for farmworkers in california and advances they made under federal law. but also as the speaker pointed out, as the leader pointed, one of the few persons that understand patent law, copyright, trademark, all those things important to the entertainment industry and the manufacturing, electronics industry and information technology industry. he has been a senior member. so we're going to miss him deeply, deeply. i feel like a son of howard berman. he ran for the state assembly. i'm going to miss him. lynn woolsey's 10 terms, senior to me. i got elected six months after lynn got sworn in. i remember how proud i was of her background in local government and roles she played in sonoma and marin county. and she has spoken 440 times speaking for peace. going to be leaving this body known as the lady of peace and will be here in history forever and ever. and i remember bill clinton recognizing the backgrounds of people and lynn woolsey was the first woman elected to congress who as a single mom had to be on welfare and worked her way out of that and leading role to show that there are opportunities for you -- for all people in this great country. but the lady of peace is the most important of all. bob filner, background in local government. went back to local government after being involved in school districts and now the mayor of san diego and came here as a freedom fighter in the civil rights movement and led the veterans committee here. joe baca will be known as the captain of our baseball team and how he did so well in that, but had a proud background as the speaker said, in the air force and paratrooper and the list goes on and on. laura richardson is leaving us. and before this, early resignation of dennis cardoza. seven democrats. going to miss them greatly and thank you for allowing me to speak on behalf of their great service to the federal government. mr. miller: thank you, mr. farr. i want to also as congresswoman eshoo and congressman farr acknowledged, there are others from the other side of the aisle who will be leaving after this session of congress. brian bilbray, marry bono mack, david dreier, wally herger, jerry lewis and dan lungren. we have had accomplishments together. jerry lewis and i had the longest floor debate over the creation of desert national parks, mohave desert national parks. when we were done, he was opposed and i was for it, but he made sure the public had access to it and visitor centers. members of congress do -- this isn't just a working relationship. over time, you get to one another's families and know their children's successes and desires and trouble that befalls american families. people don't think of that when they think of the congress and you build relationships and friendships and depend on one another's expertise to guide us through all of the issues that we will confront in a congressional year. congressman stark and myself, we enentered public policy -- public life together by running against one another in 1969. man against machine. i know who it was, this very popular banker and law school dropout. other than that, doing well. but it's a long-standing friendship and it's about family and our ability to talk with one another. and i would like to yield to congressman stark for any remarks he would like to have. mr. stark: thank you, one of the previous speakers mentioned -- you forgot to mention this that i probably had one of the best five-minute speeches of any new member of congress and if i could learn a deliberate lesson in 20 minutes, i would have a great career here. george is right, we ran against each other and when you grow up in the bay area and you have people like barbara lee who was the lone vote in one of the most unpopular wars, you learn what courage is and people who fight for children, for minorities, for all of the people in our area who need help, i'm proud to have worked with them. they have said that i'm the oldest member of congress. that's absolutely wrong. i'm the 430th youngest member of congress. and i just want to make sure you get that straight in the record. thank you, george. i'm honored and i'm particularly honored to be part of this great bay area delegation. and 10 districts surrounding the bay area, we have the finest legislative group in the united states. thank you very much. and i yield back. mr. miller: thank you very much. as we all know in this life, members leave the congress, don't leave public life and i expect we will be hearing from them as they leave the congress in their future endeavors. mr. bilbray wants to clean up the sea and dan lungren would like to take down -- and i know wally herger is concerned about the watershed of the parks of our state. their advocacy goes on and that is true on both sides of the aisle. ms. woolsey, if you would like to say anything. ms. woolsey: thank you, george, for doing this. thank you for honoring us that have been here and are now leaving. i arrived feeling very green and feeling very good 20 years ago. i had no idea how little i knew about how to get something done in the congress. i know i burned in my belly and knew what issues were important to me and they have stayed important to me for the last 20 years, but i had the advantage of working with some very wonderful senior members who generously helped me along and i had the privilege of having very talented staff who built the stage that i could dance on. you can't do that unless it's team work. and i thank you, everybody that's been part of these last 20 years. it's been quite a ride. and i'm glad i did it. thank you very much, george. mr. miller: mr. speaker, that brings to a conclusion our delegation's honor of those members leaving. this is not news to members of the house that on a bipartisan basis, this is a very, very spirited delegation on both sides of the aisle. and a lot of seniority is leaving the congress with this delegation, a lot of expertise, but i'm very proud to have served with all of them. and for their contributions and sacrifices they made in public office on behalf of public policy that they strongly believe in and became advocates for. with that, i yield back. i recognize mr. berman who is >> 10:00 and 6:00 eastern on c- span. >> my inspiration was the idea i wanted to explain how totalitarianism happened. we do know the story of the cold war. we know the documents. we have seen the archives that described the relationships. we know the main events from our point of view. what i want to do is show from a different angle from the ground up, what did it feel like to be one of the people who were subjected to this system and how did people make choices and in that system and how did they behave. one thing that has happened since 1989 is the region we used to call eastern europe has become very differentiated. they no longer have much in common with each other. >> more with anne applebaum from the end of world war ii through 1956 from "iron curtain" sunday night at 8:00. >> president obama talks about friday's shooting at an elementary school in newtown, connecticut. >> on friday, we learn more than two dozen people were killed when a gunman opened fire at an elementary school. most who died were elementary children with their lives ahead of them. among the fallen were also teachers, men and women who devoted their lives helping children fulfill their dreams. our hearts are broken today. we grieve for the families of those we lost. we keep in our prayers those who survived. they know their child's innocence has been torn away far too early. as a nation, we have endured far too many of these tragedies the past few years. an elementary school in newtown, a shopping mall again from oregon, a movie theater of in colorado, countless streetcorners and places like chicago and philadelphia. any of these neighborhoods could be our own. we have to come together and take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this from happening. regardless of politics. this weekend, michele and i are doing what i know every parent is doing, holding our children as close as we can and reminding them how much we love them. to families in connecticut, they cannot do that today. they need all of us right now. while nothing can take the place of a lost child or loved one, all of us can extend a hand to those in need to remind them that we are there for them, that we are praying for them. the love they felt for those they lost endorsed not only in their memories but their communities and in their country. thank you, and god bless you. >> john boehner sent his prayers and condolences. he said there would be no weekly address so president obama could speak for everyone in this time of morning. tomorrow, stan colender and josh gordon have the latest news on the fiscal cliff negotiations. matt kibbe discusses freedom works and the fund-raising and goals going forward. and steven cook looks at egypt opposed the referendum and what is next for president morsi. sunday at 7:00 eastern on c- span. >> the white house was a very controversial. there was competition. he submitted the design for a palace. americans are not having a palace. it was not particularly on conspiring. in 1821, a european diplomat said it was neither large nor on inspiring. the answer the congressman said, the building served its purpose. if it were larger and more elegant, perhaps a president would be inclined to become its permanent president. >> vicki goldberg has gathered a few of her favorite photographs in "the white house." sunday at 7:30 p.m. on c-span 3. >> tonight we are showing you farewell speeches and tributes from the 112th congress. first, richard lugar from the senate floor, followed by john kerry. and then the california rip lynn woolsey to the house of representatives. she is followed by a to be to outgoing telephone representatives. -- a tribute to outgoing california representatives. >> richard lugar when the senate in 1977 after mayor of minneapolis. he is the longest serving senator a center of the state history. he was defeated by the state treasurer richard murdock. chairman of the foreign relations committee from 1985 to 1987 and again from 200 this is about half an hour. >> madam president, i rise today to address my colleagues on a number of issues important to the future of the united states and to offer some perspective on senate service. in a few weeks, i will leave the senate for new pursuits that will allow me to devote much deeper attention to a number of issues that have been a part of my senate service. deeper attention to a number of issues that have been a part of my senate service. amonthese are preventing the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction and developing more efficient ways to feed the world. i am especially pleased that i will be serving on the faculty of the university of indianapolis and helping that institution establish a washington internship program. i look forward to announcing additional endeavors of service in the coming weeks. my service in the senate would not have been possible without the encouragement and the constant support of myoving wife, char, our four sons, mark, bob, john, and david, and the entire lugar family, most of which is with us here in the galleries today. their strength and sacrifices have been indispensible to my public service, and i am also very much indebted to a great number of talented and loyal friends who have served with me in the senate, including, by my count, more than 300 senators, hundreds of personal and committee staff members, and more than 1,0 student interns. in my experience, it is difficult to conceive of a better platform from which to devote oneself to public service and the search for solutions to national and international problems. at its best, the senate is one of the fouers' most important creations. a great deal has been written recently about political discord in the united states, with some commentators dging that partisanship is at an all- time high. having seen quite a few periods in the congress when political struggs were portrayed in this way, i hesitate to describe our current state as the mt partisan ever, but i do believe that as an institution, we have not lived up to the expectations of our constituents to make excellence in governance our top priority. many of us have had some type of executive experience as governors, mayors, corporation chiefs, cabinet officials. i had the good fortune of serving two terms as mayor on -- of indianapolis, prior to my senate -- of indianapolis, prior to my senate service, and for the last 36 -- my senate service, and for the last 36 years, i have attempted to apply lessons learned during those early governing experiences to my work in the senate. as a mayor, my responsibility for what happened in my city was comprehensive and inescapable. citizens held the mayor's office accountable for the prosaic tasks of daily life, like trash collections, fixing potholes in the streets, snow removal, but also for executing sttegies for the economic and social advancement of the city. in legislative life, by contrast, we are responsible for positions, expressed through votes, co-sponsorships, interviews, and other means. it takes courage to declare dozens or even hundreds or positions and stand for office, knowing that with each position, you are displeasing some group of voters, but we do our county a disservice if we mistake the act of taking positions for governance. they are not the same thing. governance requires adaptation to shifting circumstances. it often requires finding common ground with americans that have a different vision than your own. it reqres leaders who believe like edmund burke that their first responsibility to their constituents is to apply their best judgment. it is possible to be elected and re-elected aga and again and gain prominence in the senate while giving very ltle thought to governance. east one can even gained considerable notoriety by devoting -- one can even gained -- gain considerable notoriety by raising money, focusing on public relations. responsibility for legislative shortcomings can be pinned on the other party or even on members of one's own party. none of us is above politics, nor did the founders expect us to be, but we should be aspiring to something greater than this. too often in recent years, members of congress have locked themselves in inflexible positions, many of which have no hope of being implemented in a divided government, and se of these positions have been further calcified by pledges signed for political purposes. too often, we have failed to listen to each other and questioned the views being promulgated by our parties, whether they make strategic sense for our country's future. there was a rasmussen poll conducted this month that found only 10% of likely voters gave congress a rating of excellent or good. for me, the irony is that having seen at several generations of lawmakers pass through the body, -- having seen several generations of lawmakers pass through the body -- eager to contribute to the welfare of our country. often, the public does not believe that. it is easier to assume that congressional feelings arise due to the incompetence or even malfeasance of individual legislators or, perhaps, washington, d.c., itself is corrupting. it is dioncerting to think that the shortcomings are complex and defy simple solutions, but the founders were realists. parochialism, personal ambition. they understood that good intentions would not always prevail, and, accordingly, they designed able -- a way to prevent power from accumulating in a few hands, but they knew such republic would require a great deal of cooperation, and they knew it would require most elected officials to have a dedication to governance, and they trusted that leaders would arise in every era to make their plan work. the senate has a role to play in good governance. we have power is not exercised by the executive branch. -- we have powers not exercised by the executive branch. senators can have careers spanning decades, allowing them to apply expertise over decades, even as administrations come and go. we can also confer a bipartisan foreign mark on a policy. even a small bipartisan group of senators is a powerful sial othe possibility for unifying solutions. my hope is that senators will devote much more of their anjous to governance. in a perfect world, -- more of their energies to governance. this is a very high bar for any legislative branch to clear, but we must aspire to it. we are facing fundamental changes in the world that will deeply affect american security in our standard of living. a list of such changes is long, but its start in asia with the rise of china and india -- but it starts in asia with the rise of china and india. at theenter of this pivot is china, which exits as an adversary and a fellow traveler, ensuring mutual goals -- in sharing mutual goals -- as a fellow traveler, sharing mutual goals. this will impact american relations with the rest of asia and may even help determine prospects for peace or war. in visiting thailand and the philippines in october, i was reminded of the economic vitality of southeast asia and the fact that that tend countries comprise an asean represent now the fourth largest export market of the united states. these countries are center stage. we must stand firm with our friends throughout asia and actively pursue prospects for free trade and open sea lanes and other policies that will strengthen american economic growth. more broadly, we face the specter of global resource constraints, especially efficiencies of energy and food that could stimulate conflict and deepen poverty. we have made startling gains in domestic energy production, but we remain highly vulnerable still to our dependency on oil, and perhaps equally important, even if we were able to produce more energy at home, we cannot isolate ourselves from energy shocks in the global economy. we have to cooperate with other nations in improving the global system of manufacturing a moving energy supplies. currently, a key to this is helping to assure the completion of a southern energy corridor serving parts of europe and unleashing our own a liquefied natural gas exports to address the energy vulnerability -- our own liquefied natural gas exports to address the energy vulnerability. productivity of global agriculture will not keep up with projected food demand on less many countries change their policies. -- unless many countries change their policies. agriculture technology, including genetically modified techniques. their risk of climate change intensified this imperative -- the risk of climate change int ensifies this imperative. access to the internet and social media has deeply affected international politics, in most cases to the better, but it has also contributed to bucky balls, like the arabs during -- but it has alsoontributed to of people -- to upheavals, like the arab spring. potential catastrophe remains of a terrorist attack on america, an employing -- on america and employing weapons of mass destruction. we could be set back by re than one decade or more. having devoted considerable time to this problem, there are no silver bullets. protecting the americans from weapons of mass destruction is a painstaking process that every day must employ our best technological, diplomati and military tools. we must maintain the competitiveness of the united states in the internatnal community. we should see education, energy efficiency, access to global markets, the attraction of immigrant entrepreneurs, and other factors as national security issues. my own view is that the fundamentals of american society still offer us the best hand to play in global mpetitiveness. no other country can match the quality of our post secondary education. we have the broadest technological base and the most advanced agricultural system. our population is younger and more mobile than most other intentional lies nation's -- most other industrialized naons. the competitive genius of the american people has allowed us time and time again to reinvent our american economy, but we must deal with failures of governments that have delayed resolutions to obvious problems. no rational strategy for our long-term growth and security should fail to restrain current entitlement spending, and no attempt to gain the maximum, a strategic advantage from our human resource potential -- gain the maximum, strategic advantage from our humanesource potential -- and encourages the most talented immigrants to contribute to america's future. there is a need to elevate our senate debate pitting it is vital that the president and congress established -- there is a need to elevate our senate debate. it is vital that the president and congress established -- establish -- such as war with iran or another catastrophic terrorist attack. this depends on congressional leaders who are willing to set aside partisan advantage and on administration officials who understand the advantage of having the support of congress. currently, the national securi dialogue between the president and congress, in my judgment, is one of the least constructive i have ever witnesse there is little foundation for resolving national security disputes or even the expectations that can occur. now, before the next 9/11, the president has to be willing to call republicans to the oval office and establish the basis of a working partnership in foreign policy, and republicans have to be able to suspend opposition that serves no purpose but to limit their own role and render cooperation impossible. all should recognize the need for unity in the coming year when events in ira syria, no. -- syria, and others will test amican security in extreme ways. i commend each of you, my senate colleagues for the commitment that allow you to stand for election to the united states senate to begi with. running for office is a difficult endeavor, usually accompanied by great personal risk and cost. each one of you is capable of being a positive force for changing the tone of debate in our country. each one of you has the responsibility to protect the integrity and represent your constituents, but also to make informed and imaginative choices on which our country depends. i am optimistic about our country's future. i believe that both internal divisions and external threats can be overcome. the united states will continue to serve as the inspiration for people seeking peace, freedom, and economic prosperity. and the united states senate should and will be at the forefront of this advancement. may we see each day, got our creator -- each day from god, our creator -- and may god continue to bless the united states of america. >> the gentleman from indiana. >> the service of richard lugar, and to pay tribute to his legacy. i have served beside him during my two tours of service here in the united states senate. all of us want to make a difference. most certainly, senator lugar has done that. at an early age, he developed a passion fo knowledge. a native of indianapolis, he was valedictorian at his high school, a distinguished institution where knowledge is at the forefront. one of our former members, ted stevens, was also a graduate of that high school. dick lugar then went on to become valedictorian at is university, where he graduated with a degree in economics. he went on to attend oxford university as a rhodes scholar and got a master's degree in politics, philosophy, an economics, and today, he is one of the most decorated scholars in the united states sene, with 46 on re-degrees from 15 states and the district of columbia. -- with 46 or honorary degree is -- 46 honorary degrees from 15 states and the district of columbia. i would say the navy chose the best person they could have for that job, and dick lugar became known not only for his hard work but hisntellectual prowess. senator lugar, at the young age of 35, became mayor, serving two terms. there is no question that dick lugar is recognized as one of the most influential and visionary mayors that indiana has ever seen, and i would submit that the country has ever seen. i was working full time and attending indiana law school at night, and that did not leave much time for us to enjoy the amenities of indianapolis, but, frankly, thereere very few to enjoy it at that particular time. it was then that our newly- elected mayor began a transformation. it is now one of the most attractivend livable cities in america. he worked with the assembly. he extended the boundaries of the city and provided comments, is essential services more efficiently, -- and provided common, essentials services more efficiently -- essential services more efficiently. it became a model for the country. moving from the 26 largest city to one of the nation's dozen laest cities. when i think of the changes over the past 40 years, i see the fulfillment of then-mayor dick lugar. men and women of sense and decency. not all of us all in that category. sometimes, that sense is questioned.- is such skill is extremely valuable in the united states senate, a body that by its very design is supposed to foster compromise by legislators on issues before the nation. and so, it was a national progression that following his success as mayor, dick lugar's its job would be as united states senator. next job would be as united states senator. he is the type of lawmaker and a leader who works hard to bring both parties together, find common ground. his contributions are many, including his service on the agricultural committee. hisost important role in the senate has to be his leadership of the senate foreign relations committee. as a two-time chairman of this committee, he has been one of the most influential minds on foreign policy in the united states. he has worked tirelessly to promote arms control, dismantle nuclear arms, and address the global food crisis, among others. among his many accomplishments, his legislation will nolikely be -- when senator lugar joined, he traveled to the soviet union, on multiple occasions, to gain a better understanding of how the united states can dismantle and secure weapons of mass destruction. he champions the landmark legislation -- he championed legislation that makes the world a safer place. it has deactivated more than 7500 nuclear warheads that were once aimed at the united states, a contribution to which americans can never give enough thanks. over his 36 years in this institution, senators from both side of the aisle have considered him a trusted resource when it comes to foreign policy and many other important issues. he has been a consistent resources for those who seek thoughtful answers. when i first arrived here in 1989, we operated a unique joint-office arrangement, sharing staff. many of our colleagues were surprised by this arrangement. dick lugar and i liked to tell them they were getting twice the work for half the price. his sincere desire to reach across the aisle, to find common ground, and his unique talent fororging coalitions and bringing people together to accomplish big things -- a tribute to senator lugar would be incomplete without recognizing the support of his wife, charlene, and his sons. public service has demands on our families, and thei support and saifice plays a role in the success of any senator. it has been an honor for me to work with senator lugar. i am thankful for his service to indiana and our country. we wish you and your family nothing but the best as you begin this next chapr of your life. you have outlined many other ways that you will be ntinuing. that is a great benefit. i am certain we will continue to learn and benefit from your lifetime of public service. i know my colleagues join me in thanking him for h >> after the 112th congress, retired dick lugar is heading back home to join the university of indianapolis. he will be in the department of history and political science. he served on the board of trustees will he was mayor and establishing the on the university board of trustees while he was mayor his replacement is the current indiana representative and democrat, joe donnelly, who defeated the indiana state treasurer in the 2012 november election, just shy of 50% of the vote. ranking member richard lugar joined john kerry at the 196th anniversary of the foreign relations committee. chuck hagel of nebraska gave the keynote address. sponsored by the u.s. capitol historical society this is over one hour. by the u.s. capitol historical society this is over one hour. >> ladies and gentlemen, if i could have your attention? we will start our program. i think it is great where we can have an event where everybody is so interested in visiting with each other, that it is a great success when that happens, and i hate to put a damper on it, but we do want to get going, and i do appreciate your attention, and i am sure that gentleman i will introduce will also appreciate it. i am with the u.s. capitol historical society, and i have the honor tonight of introducing three gentlemen who actually need no introduction, because i know you people are very much aware of the highlights of their career and quite knowledgeable about the senate and the congress, so i am going to dispense with that, and, of course, each one of them had some leadership positions in our nation's foreign policy as members of the foreign relations committee, and we will hear about some tonight. i also did a littlresearch myself and found that all of them have also written books. in fact, some have itten more than one book, so instead of me giving you the usual, canned introduction, i thought i would let their own words in their own writing introduce them. i start with john key. he came by his interest in foreign affairs as the son of an american diplomat, as well as his own experiences in vietnam. in his book "a call to service," , kerr -- service," senator kerry talks about being a brat. being erseas, you are exposed to many things, and it teaches you. he noted that his father was often transferring not only overseas but also back into the united states. he wrote, "1 assignment that he had in washington that had an especially strong effect on me is when he was -- the formulations committing -- the foreign relations committee. i testified on behalf of the vietnam veterans against the war, and when i was elected to the u.s. senate in 1984, i fought with my staff 438 solid day is over or serving on the foreign relations committee -- i fought with my staff for three solid days over serving on the foreign relations committee. i was determined to get on the foreign relations committee, and i have been there ever since." ladies and gentlemen, john kerry. [applause] >> tomm, thank you very much -- tom, thank you very much. i had totally forgotten that i was that candid. [laughter] i made a very wise decision. everybody was pulling their hair out and saying, "we do not do anything anymore." what a pleasure to be here. it is really a pleasure to be here. i am honored to be here with many of my colleagues, beginning, of course, with the ranking member, my friend, joe biden's friend, an extraordinarily respected colleague, and dick lugar is here, too, and everybody here just wants to say thank you for everything you stand for. [applause] dick, dick is an absolutely -- a statement. it is said that a politician is a man who understands government. a statesman is a politician who has been dead for 10 years. but the truth is, as we all know, dick lugar has managed to transcend that, and bob from tennessee, i am delighted he is here -- from georgia, and from my neighboring state of new hampshire -- and earlier, we had a number of other members drop by. i want to thank each of the members that i just named. they are interlocal, thoughtful members -- they are integral, thoughtful members. i am very grateful to them for the diligence they use and their ability to put ade the the sometimes-partisan division, which is what we need to do on that committee. i want to thank the historical society for bringing us together tonight. we are really a privilege. all of the members -- we are really privileged, all of the members. it is a force for bringing our nation's history alive and for creating all kinds of exhibits, helping young kids to come to this place and understand their own history, and more and more, i think everybody would agree that that is really important because it helps to put the business of the country ahead of politics. i think all of my colleagues would agree with me -- find ways out of this current predicament the country is as divided as i can remember at any time of public life, from the 1960's and e 1970's about war, but we are now divided between red and blue, the coasts, the heartland, secular and religious. sometimes i am reminded of william faulkner's words. at times, we feel that way. the full quote was from shakespeare about sound -- about fury. i am not going to go there. i think it is safe to say that we are all long way away except in the great moments where we do we are a long way -- i think it is safe to say that we are a long way away except in great moments. "we thanked -- thank thee that thy servant, in a time that called for gatness, and grew into greatness -- greatness, grew into greatness," and i am thankful for all of the ambassadors here, because they understand how much the world is changing, how complicated relationships are, and how important it is for all of us in all of our country's -- countries to summon us to something bigger, to greatness. we have been blessed to have a guy like dick lugar, whether he served as chairman or served as ranking member, he has always been atudent of public affairs. he tried to find common ground. tributen's letter is a to that. i have seen him worked -- work. it has been a vision. reaching out and taking some of those kinds of risks. but even with the great satan of the former soviet union, richard lugar was able to reach out and make things happen. i remember as a young senator, just arrived, and actually, a member of my family -- this is not something i have talked about much in the city -- a governor of the philippines back in the early 1900's, so i had a fascination with the new weapons because of family involvement there for some period of time -- i had a fascination with the philippines because of family involvement there for some period of time. this relationship between him and his people and us and them -- i came back, and the first thing i did with the foreign relations committee is to put in a resolution to link or aid, and marcos responded by calling an election and sayg, " i am going to -- "i am going to prove to the united states who is in charge here." the national movement for free philippines. a cathedral i attended, an extraordinary mass. that was a place where we saw these 13 women come out, midnight, and the only lights were the television cameras, and each told of the numbers they were putting in -- the numbers they were putting in were not the numbs coming out on the board, in the election was being stolen, -- and the election was being stolen, a dick said we have to ll this the way we see it. we rushed back, met with president reagan, and dick lugar and others changed history with that even. it is remarkable. that is what the foreign relations committee membership can do. chuck is another guy who understands that. he continues to do it. i respect so much his willingness to speak out directly, his constancy, when he was here, in being able to take on his own party at times, but just speaking, to u the rrible cliche, of truth to power. we took a trip to afghanistan, and we were in one province, and during the flight back, we got involv in some snowstorm in the helicopters. man, i will never forget this chopper pilot, suddenly in a panic diving, and we went down in an emergency landing on the top of this mountain, in mass es of snow, and the whole time, the general was briefing us, and he never stopped briefing us. [laughter] we were in crash mode, and we choked -- joked that we should give a speech, and we would be airborne again with hot air. we, first of all, thought we would assign one of us to give a speech and talk them down, and then we decided that is not going to work, so we set up a snowball squadron, and finally, we were rescued by a bunch of humvees, and we had to drive down the mountain in this long escort, so there are these wonderful memories that come with these journeys, sitting on a plane late at night and talking about the problems of the world, and i would just say to you quickly, i do not want to abuse my privilege year, -- here, it is a great privilege for me being able to serve for some period of time, and it is up to the american people what happens, so i always viewed this with a certain contemporary nest -- a certain temporary- ness. i did cut my teeth testifying. and it was a very different time in the senate, where you can find relationships on the other side, building them, mak things happen. i want that senate to come back. it is certainly what the founding fathers intended, but we are facing now a world that is obviously profoundly changing, and nobody can put that genie back in the bottle. nobody can. there is only one way to respond to this world, and it is try to tame the worst courses of globalization, and i believe that can be done. the foreign relations committee is probably one of the world's greatest -- to do that. it is an extraordinary bully pulpit. we will have a hearing on human trafficking. pandemic around the planet. there are many other things that we're obviously working on. we will soon be talking about people with disabilities and rights, and needless to say, the new historic treaty, the chemical weapons convention. so much hahappened through this committee, and it was mentioned in the beginning what happened with respect to the early times of the committee. the alaska purchase in 1867. the accomplishment of the united nations. the passage of the truman doctrine, and, of course, not least, the rebuilding ofurope and japan after a war where the united states, against the will of the american people -- they were not in support of the marshall plan, but, today, no one could argue that it was not essential to the ultimate transformation of the former soviet union into the freedom of people in eastern europe and to a remarkable sense of ssibilities for people who had lived under the yoke of totalitarianism 40 along. those things, out of this committee. those are the possibilits -- those things come out of this committee. those are possible. i worked for teddy kennedy. many of us were greatly changed by the assassination of president kennedy and then robert kennedy, and i will never forg the words, "i dream things that never were and asked -- ask why not," and the evening is special not only because it brings us together to celebrate the foreign relations committee and its past accomplishments, but a reminder of the debt that we owe to those who preceded us on this committee and set an example of what it could achieve and what we can be, so i think we can learn by the way they conducted business. i also think we all need to remember, you know, what is happening in the middle east is the most significant change since the end of the ottoman empire, certainly, and it is up for grabs. today, i talked with secretary sherman, and secretary clinton is in hanoi, and we need to do things to help egypt move forward. as difficult as that may be in terms of politics. one-quarter of the world's arab ts -- the world's population has challges. the possibility of peace in the middle east as well as what our national security picture is going to look like for some time to come, so we have to have the vision to understand that we are connected. we also need to understand that our economy is not something over here, separate from all of our aspirations. to do the things we want to do, to be indispensable nation that people view us as being, it is imperative for us to make better choices about our economy, -- to be the indispensable nation that people view us as being. that is what foreign policy is, a balance. sometimes your interests are bigger than your values, and sometimes your values are bigger. i am convinced of this. we are an exceptional nations. we talk about american exceptionalism to the point where it grates on other countries and probably should, but there is something exceptional, i would say to you, but it is not a birthright. it is not on automatic pilot. we have only been an exceptional when we make the choices that make us exceptional, and we need to remember that it is not a slogan or a sound bite. it is when we increase our values and interests in the best way that advance the cause of our nation and also advancehe cause of our fellow human beings on this planet. that is the way the foreign relations committee should define itself in my judgment. thank you for ordering it. -- honoring it. [applause] >> senator kerry, thank you for your current, past, and future leadership on the foreign relations committee, and let's hope we can go back to some of the old ways of working together, both sides of the aisle. i know as a house member, there is a lot of challenges in that body. richard lugar is a true gentleman . he is a uversally respected voice for the development and implementation of a bipartisan foreign policy. as a gracious in defeat as he has always been in victory, he is one of the giants -- as gracious in defeat as he always has been in victory, he is one of the giants. probably his lasting legacy will be the reduction of nuclear war and nuclear weapons in the world. dick's passion for seeking long- term solutions to complex foreign policy problems instead of opting for the slogans and short-term political and manages is best summed up in his books -- book. dick, i do not know iyou ever get any of the money, but i read your book on a kindle, so that money should someday find its wa to you. here is what he wrote in 2004. >> too often, the motivation for important national security positions of both parties is driven by politics. they are disconnected from any credible analysis. a consensus foreign policy cannot be wished back into being, nor can it be manufactured overnight in response to an immediate crisis. it can only be restored gradually over time with the development of mutual trust between congress and the executive branch." dick lugar, we will miss you. we feel we have a loss, and thank you. [applause] >> chairman tom, i am so indebted to you for your thoughtfulness and your friendship. ronald sarasin, we are honored, and there are the attributes of my good friend john kerry. we had a wderful time on the committee, and john cited the philippines as an adventure, but there were so many. i just appreciate all of our colleagues on the committee being here tonight and the distinguished ambassadors, and we are grateful to each one of you for honoring the committee and honoring the historical society on its anniversary. i want to think again the capitol historical society for offering -- i want to thank again the historical society. with the comprehensive research efforts of very diligent staff members, i hope you will forgive the indulgences of their findings. i want to make some comments. by my count in the history of the senate, only five members have served 30 years or more on the committee. all five began their service in the second half of the 20th century. this is partially attributable to increasing life expectancy in to the fact that many members of the committee during the 19th century and early 20th century did not begin their foreign service service until 6, 8, or even 10 years in. john kerry had the foresight to join immediately. it has been far more common in recent decades for fshmen to be granted a seat on the foreign relations committee thanefore. chris dodd and another gain a seat -- gained a seat on the committee and held it. another served 32 years, having gained a seat in his fourth year as a senator. at the end of this year, i will have served 34 years on the committee, joining vice- president biden, who reached that tenure before he was elected to his current position. both of us gained a seat on the committee after two years in the senate. vice-president biden also holds the distinction of being the third foreign relations committee chairman to become vice president of the united states. it is an understatement to say that he is having much more success in his role than his two predecessors. the first chaian to become vice president had tuberculosis when he was elected and died only 25 days into his vice presidential tenure. he holds the record of the fewest days served of an elected a u.s. executive office. even president harrison, who became sick after exposing himself to a rainstorm on his inauguration day, managed to last a full month in office. the other chair of the foreign relations committee who was vice president was lincoln's first vice president. he spent much of his vice presidency in his home state of maine, a difficult platform from which to influence policy in washington, d.c., and he was much more fortunate than william king in that he survived his term, -- like senator kerry, my first contact with the committee was even before i became a senator. i was awarded a rhodes scholarship. i arrived at oxford, and i was told of tutorial work. in my first year of residence at the college, emboldened by stories, i decided to write to a senator who was a member of the senate foreign relations committee but not yet its chairman. he was in the midst of an in battled relationship with senator joseph mccarthy of wisconsin region -- he was in the midst of an in battle -- embattled relationship with senatoroseph mccarthy of wisconsin. i senator fulbright and i shared common experiences. senator fulbright and i won scholarships and chose to study at pembroke college. both of us focused much attention on it government d economics at oxford. both of us were blessed with the same tudor. -- tutor. both of us were elected from states in the interior of the u.s. that were not associated with international interests. both of us sought a wea on the foreign relations committee and ascended to the chairmanship. senator fulbright holds the record as the longest serving chairman of the foreign relations committee, a tenure in stretching from 1959 to 1974. my tenure as chairman was only six years, but i hold the record of the most time elapsed between my first and second chairmanships, 16 years. i did not have the pleasure of serving with senator fulbright and the senate. he left office two years before i was elected. but his influence on my career was profound and pernent. he was especially generous to me when i became chairman of e committee in 1985 for the first time. what senator fulbright understood is the main function of the foreign relations mmittee is oversight of the administration's policy. the committee is responsible for substantial areas of legislation, including the state department budget, for assistance, and treaties. in most years, its biggest impact comes from its role as partner and counterweight to the administrati's actions on a global scale. the role of the committee is to constantly question the president's foreign policy activities. reinforcing some and we directing or opposing others. to some degree, every committee exercise oversight. in myxperience, no committee has such a broad expanse of activities to monitor. this is reflected in the fact that in many years, we hold more hearings than any other senate committee. we also send more nominees to the senate than any other committee, with the possible exception of the judiciary committee. confirmation hearings on hundreds of nominees are served to vet the nominees and review our policy towards individual countries were represented, partly because of this fast oversight role, chairman and ranking member, i have attempted to encourage members wit few years of experience to stay on the committee, to build continuity and expertise. i believe the senate of the united states foreign policy in general benefits of having experienced members who are willing to commit to a long-term service on the foreign relations committee through many presidential administrations. but retaining members has become an increasing challengen recent years. on the republican side, our conference on rule prohibiting simultaneous service on any two of the super 8 committees, appropriations, finance, foreign relations, has led to many short tenures. conference rules on the other side of the aisle are more lenien the democrats are also seeing turnover. beyond conference dynamics, most members of the committee must deal with the reality that f ew political benefits come from devoting oneself t the foreign relations committee. on the plus side, our members are invited to appear on sunday morning talk shows more often than most. and service on the committee is someone said -- sometimes seen as a useful credential when seeking higher office but the foreign relations committee and has a difficult platform from which to appeal for campaign funds. and there is a very little public spending that flows to this committee to constituents. absent a series global crisis, foreign policy tops the list of concerns -- rarely tops the list of concerns of voters. the committee depends heavily on members who want to devote a substantial portion of their service to foreign policy and national security regardless of other roles they play in the senate. and my hope is that many more good senators will continue to come forward to embrace this role. i thank each one of you tonight for your contributions to the committee, for recognizing its importance and its members, for recognizing the historical importance of the committee to the senate into our country. may god continue to bless the united states senate, its foreign relations committee, and especially may god bless america, the country we love to serve hot. thank you very much. [applause] >> during his 12 years in the senate, chuck hagel served as a member of the foreign relations committee. today, as chairman of the elected council and co-chair of the president's intelligence advisory board as well as a member of the secretary of defense's policy board, the senator continues to play a leading role in the development of america's foreign policy. 2008, chuck wrote a book he titled "america, our next chapter." he was kind enough to give me a signed copy. i read it for this occasion, hoping to find a passage that would serve as his introduction. i want up identifying 13. don't worry. reduced it dowto two. the first passage happens in the first paragraph of his book. "of all, i think of myself as an american. if you had asked my dad, he would have said the same thing. that is how we thought in nebraska, in ainsworth. there were 100 other towns in the western part of the state, a couple of churches, a hardware store, a movie theater that always had a double feature, two gas stations, and an american legion post. it was the kind of town where if you roll down your car windows and turned the radio out loud, you could hear buddy holly singing peggy sue from one end of main street to the other. now we know of his favorite song was. just down the road, my great grandfather and great grandmother lived in an apartment above the bakery across the street from the drugstore. they shared their small apartment with two grown sons, wounded vets of world r ii, who got by on disability pension. eventually, huck and tom would leave that nebraska town and find themselves in the jungles of vietnam, serving side by side, there were both severely wounded by the viet cong in a land mine explosion. able to survive through the night. of that experience, he wrote, from that day on, i was a changed person. i remember a strong resolve coming over me as i were chopper climbed over the canopy of the jungle and i watched the steam rise above that in the morning light. i made myself a promise that if i ever got out of this place, was ever in a position to do something about it, i would make sure that war so horrible, so and riddled with suffering, i would do whatever i could to stop it. i've never forgotten that promise. i made it to myself but also to everyone who answers the call to serve their country. i think of it every day, because once you set a war in motion, its consequences are the ones least iended and they are always on controllable." chuck haglel. [applause] >> tom, thank you. i am grateful for the opportunity to be here for many reasons. to my not old but longtime friend, ron serson, when dinosaurs roamed the earth, we got acquainted on the fifth floor of the cannon building. this is too high class a g roup. was rightn's offe next to the closet. and he performed admirably. his wardrobe consisted, no unlike congressman coleman's, of the wide lapel jacket, much like a horse blanket. they have two -- to havae two gillman of the caliber and the kind of public servants they work -- two of that caliber to lead the u.s. historical society, congratulations on the anniversary and what you are doing with this institution. i do not know of anything more important than to preserve history, to apply that history to our future generations. mr. scruggs is here. here is a man who has made some contribution to that effort. the memorial he was responsible for leading, it would not have been built without him. [applause] it was testimony, yes, to those who served and those who made the ultimate sacrifice, but memorials are built for the future. memorials are billed for the next generation and the next generation. they are billed to remind us and to recognize the great virtues nobleness ofthe man. of course, it's a high privilege to be here with two for relations chairmen. between them, i believe 62 years of service on the foreign relations committee, and you add to that vice-president biden's service, the three of them represent about 100 years of service. that is a rather significant amount of time and a significant contribution to this country. for all the reasons you have heard tonight from these two gentleman to my former colleagues, some were here tonight, to new members of the foreign relations committee that i did not ve the privilege of serving with, thank you for what you continue to do for our country. one of i think the most important parts of this job, one of the great privileges of this job is to recognize a firstf all, we are. we are not republicans. we're not democrats. we are americans. i was often asked,ut senator, you oppose your party or you challenge for president. i would as cheerfully as i knew how respond, i am the united states senator. i am a united states senator representing nebraska. i have a philosophy about government which happens to fit the republican party, at least my interpretation. but i am not a republican senator. i am a united states senator who happens to be republican. and i think the foreign relations committee and it's been eloquently noted here tonight by two of the very best preserved in this business, have clearly articulated that. there was no one in this room at does nounderstand what they said or has not witnessed this. the colleagues on the committee here tonight and the staff see it up close every day. i also want to recognize char lugar for her service. for what youyou, have meant and the contributions to have made to not only dick but the senate. [applause] supporters. this society, no institution can ist without the financial support and the resignation -- recognition of the worthiness of the institution. so all of you who have faithfully contributed continue to contribute, continue to write or checks. is that correct? that's a big part of this. thank you. my remark are going to build on what our two chairmen have talked about and that is the framing of the foreign relations committee. like john kerry and dick lugar and joe biden, as the vice- president noted in his letter, like every senator here, when you get here, you have to make some choices. if you are freshmen, you have limited choices, but you make choices about committee assignments. in the senate, you have more of a menu, more of an agenda, a variety. and i recall the day after i was elected to the senate, november, 1996, the world herald sat down with me and we did an interview. the first question i was asked was, is there any member of the senate that you would like to emulate? is there any member of the senate you would like to model your career after? i responded by saying, not being yet a wise senator but hopefully all wise senator, all the senators. all had made great contributions, all have something to say and it is important for our country. i said, yes there is one senator who are very much would like to model my service after and that is dick lugar from indiana. that appeared on the front page of the evening edition. my noting it was dick lugar who i had most of my. second question was what committee assignments do you think you would like to see? without hesitation i said, foign relations committee. i do not think that was surprising to the reporter who was doing the interview was the political reporter who had been around for four years in nebraska -- for 4years in nebraska, because he had noted, in august of that year, i gave a major, not of the quality of kerry-lugar-biden, a mear effort, a major feign relations speech at the university of nebraska in august, when everybody was gone. and the reporters were a bit surprised probably by the vacuousness of the content, but they were generous and gave me some considerable notation, but the question they posed to me was, why would you give a foreign relations speech in nebraska? we have never followed a senate candidate who no one knows, who has not held public office, and he would give a major foreign policy address. we, when that same reporter asd me the question, what committees are you going to try to get seats on i said immediately, foreign relations. he said why? and of course, not unlike what john kerry and dick lugar had noted and everyone in this room knows it, especially the members on the committee today, you cannot raise money on that. in this kind of a dead end committee. what does it do? nobody cares. i said, you are wrong. the foreign relations committee, all the committees in the senate frames america's interests more than any committee. when you think about it it does. it is not just the things that john and dick talked about, the oversight and all the things that dick talked about in his item as asian and his agenda that the foreign relations committee does. but it is the 19 additional responsibilities that most people do not have any idea that come under the jurisdiction of the committee. i will give yoan example of that. many of you in this room will remember -- i know my most learned colleagues will -- 1997-1998, there was an asian currency crisis that began with the russian ruble, then the baht, and it affected markets. i was also on the banking committee. bob corker and i served on that committee together. and i remember the chairman at the time saying, the banking committee will take control of that. jesse helms as chairman. and jesse and his staff, and some staff members might recall this, said the banking committee does not have jurisdiction. the foreign relations committee has jurisdiction. i happened to be a very jr. chairman of the subcommittee that was the international policy -- international policy committee. i got that subcommittee because no one else wanted it. that was fine with me. i was a chairman of something. i knew it was important but nothing really has happened. when this happened, i became very popular with bob rubin, the treasury secretary, and president clinton. the fact was, that demotto and phil graham were outraged and said, you are wrong. and jesse said, no, read the jurisdiction. re enough, he was right. i use that as but one example. when i say framing america's interests, again, this has been noted tonight as john kerry talked about -- economics, trade, relationships, stability, security, diplomacy, everything, everything revolves around the foreign relations committee and most of it recites inside the foreign relations committee. -- resides inside the committee. as noted here, too, the up and down of committee, not unlike markets, not unlike nations, which are clearly recounted in history, you work through those waves of different committees at different times. but when john kerry talk tonight about arthur vandenberg's comment, and everybody on the committee knows it. let me take that a little further. that comment was made by a republican senator who had bee a bit of an isolationist going into world war ii. in 1946, most of you know, truman was the president. and he was facing a republican congress, senate. and arthur vandenberg became chairman of the senate foreign relations committee in 1947. that is when he said that. the significance of that statement at that time, because events are always captive to timing and to atmospherics, and to the environment, because those are the pressures that dictate and dominate all is -- leadership, consequences, votes. he said that because he recognized that that was the beginning of the cold war, after world war ii. if america was to succeed and lead what there was of the free world onto higher ground, which later as we all know through history produced the marshall plan and other such events which help stabilize a very unstable and unsure world, especially europe. there was no guarantee that york was going to turn out in any -- that europe was going to turn out the way it did turn out. but the responsible thing to do was to say what he said and work with the administration and that committee led by the republican, which you might also note, i know the members on the foreign relations committee -- it was arthur vandenberg who authored the nato resolution, which set up nat now, i offer those two examples as further testimony of what we have been talking about tonight, what's dick and john talked about. i want to take this a little further, because i think you've got to point about foreign relations. everything that john kerry said and dick lugar about our current political environment is right. and i would suspect that no one in this room with question that america is not very happy. our congress is not happy. we're off-balance. in churchill's words, the gong of 9/11 has knocked us off balance. we have not gotten back since. we can go back to 1989 when the soviet union imploded. what that did was set in motion a dynamic of global proportions that no one has ever had to deal with before and we are still working our way through it. nato . why do we need nato? our senior members recall vividly the deport. -- the debate. we put that aside and never answered that question. in its place, we put nato enlargement. i happen to support and i think john kerry and dick lugar were strong supporters, but the oer change of that was nato enlargement, which again was house in the foreign relations committee, and all the hearings were in theoreign relatio committee and the decisions made in the foreign relations committee were brought out on the floor and in the house as well -- it was not so much now about what nato was 50 years before. collective security. this was as much about and maybe more about economic security for those eastern european nations that were untethered. what do we do now? that nato membership meant a tremendous validation to the new democracies because, yes, it gave them the imprimatur of nato. but far more important than that, as every business person knows, it gave investors and companies some reliability in theirinvestment in one of thoscountries. so this was now a different dynamic that had been introduced into the world and nato specifically that we have ever seen before. it was clearly a verify economic dynamic. i use that as just one exple. that was contained in foreign relations. the 12 years that i served in the senate, greatest 12 years of my life, no privilege like it, i often have thought about those 12 years, having nothing to me. i was a fleeting steward. but you think about what john kerry talked about, what has happened in the world. what is the problem? ourselveswe bring together to find a new crowding, a purpose? we do not have a common enemy. we have a war on terrorism. what is terrorism? terrorism is a tactic. is not a philosophy. it is not a form of government. it is a tactic that has been around since man got off all fours. but there is no common purpose of anything and the greatest a fusion of economic power in the history of man has confused everybody i. these are some of the factors that are playing out. the committees in the congress -- now i want to go a little wider and my concluding remarks -- committees are damned important. they are so very important. i recognize that when i first got to the senate. everyone of my colleagues recognizes it. i did not appreciate it as much as i did at the end of 12 years, or as i do today. because what resides in that effort and process -- and process is important w. we get kicked around in washington about process. what does process do? it does not do anything. it prolongs the problem. imperfect, yes. but here is what process does. why it is critically important for society. it absorbs shocks. if you do not have a process, you cannot absorption. when something happens, and it always does, look at our world last few years -- shock, shock, shock. we have had institutions that have been able to absorb the shock. the greatest challenges are ahead of us. they have to be done to the committee work, because the committee work is the only forum, the onlyrocess that allows intelligence and intelligence and understanding, knowledge, discourse about identifying the problem, short- term, long-term, and how do we fix it. that takes consensus. rarely did i er see, unless it was a mother's day resolution, what i voted for, come on the senate floor that was a controversial issue if it had not gone through a committee first. sand down the rough edges and try to work to the compromises of the democrat-republican amendments and come to a consensus when you voted out of the commiee. there is no other way it can work. these issues are too big, too complex. after rely on the committee system, the committee structure. is more so today than ever before and will continue to be that way. so the emphasis on committees i do not think it can be overstat. the other part of that is, again something john mentioned, the interconnectedness of committees. not jurisdiction of committee oversight but how is indirect -- interconnected. there is not one part of our security, the future of 7 billion people that has not connected to everything else. energy, environment, security, economy, trade, education, jobs, religion. you name any element that drives society, has always dictated the outcome of civilizations, it is now all woven into one fiber. you are not going to fix that on the floor of the senate or the floor of the house, or my distinguished friends who are here from other countries that serve as ambassadors, as good as their parliaments are, you will not fix it in their parliament on the floor. it has got to be done through a process and the system. that is why these systems, these committees are so important. i'll end my comments this way. i do not know of anyone who has lived and recognize and worked on these issues as well and as honestly as dick lugar over has over the years. i know he has been noted tonig for that effort. you will be serious thing this. everyone recognizes that. -- you will be seriously missed. but i will say that, with the members of the senate to o coming behind you, dick. and john, i know you are not ready to leave yet. but who are coming behind you, the greatest advantage you have given, dick, and to you, john, your younger colleagues is the role modeling i began comments on tonight. because every one of these colleagues sitting here tonight watched the two of you, how you have done. i would add to biden. joe biden. that is the greatest legacy will leave. all the pieces of legislation with your names on it, leadership conference's, bills named after you, that is not real. first of all, it is not your money. is the taxpayers' money what you do leave is to leave that legacy of leadership in how you did it and you did it the right way. i have great confidence in this country because, as imperfect as our process is, as imperfect as our public servants are, and we all are, we all learn, i don't know of a group of men and women who are more committed to make a better world than those who offer themselves for public office. and if we are just wise enough to understand that and build a consensus around that, we will have differences, we should have differences, but it has to start in committees. strength of those committees is not just the academic parbut get to know each other. john kerry talked about dick and others when we traveled together, we sat in planes together. i sat in an suv with joe biden for eight hours going to the turkish border io kurdistan. sitting next to joe biden for eight hours, i learned a lot. i finally had to give up and say, i cannot do it anymore. i had my mother on the phone with him, i had everybody. but you get to know the humanity. and that is what we are missing more than anything else, the humanity of the service of this noble, a noble cause. committees do that better than anybody, in any way. in committees are important probably as much for that reason as anything else. thank you, all, very much. [applause] >> chuck, thank you very much, and ladies and tenement, thank you as well. nator, for your thoughtful remarks. i want to present you with this book of architecture and decoration of the capitol. [applause] i have senator kerry. actually, you can find a way around. chuck hagel and i go back to, as he mentioned to the fifth floor of the canon building. when i was elected, i cannot get an office because i had to wait for chuck hagel and his boss to leave 511 canon. 511 canon is in that attic of the building. it is a piece of real a state that nobody wants. only one elevator goes there, two elevators no one can find you there so it was very peaceful on the fifth floor. that is where i met chuck. we have been friends for four years. senator kerry and lugar, we have momentos for you. these prints for you of washington city. we're happy to give to you to chairman john kerry. [applause] i want to thank everyone for being here today. i have to give you some instructions on how to leave this room, because after 8:00, the main door is locked. so you may not be able to get home tonight. first, i want you to look around. this is the room the titanic hearings were held in, the watergate hearings, the mccarthy hearings. this is a very, very historic room in the complex of the united states capitol. we are very grateful for the opportunity to be here. i want to thank the donors who did so much to make this evening possible. walmart, caterpillar, express scripts, exxon mobile. now the instructions on how to get out of here. guests should exit down the right quarter from the rotunda. take another right at the end of the corridor, take the elevator to the basement. the guard will direct to from there. what you are trying to do is get out of the dirksen building at . you cannot get out of this building. the doors are locked. you have to go out of the exit door in dirksen. thank you, all, for coming. this has been a wonderful evening. great comments. thank you very, very much. [captioning performed by national captioning institute] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2012] >> ladies and gentlemen, please take the centerpieces home with you. >> coming up on c-span, california rep and democrat lynn woolsey delivers her farewell address from the house floor. followed by a tribute by other members of congress to outgoing california representatives. mr. speaker, throughout my career in public life and even before nothing has motivated me more than a desire to end wars and violent conflict. when i was a small girl, saying bedtime ayers or making a birthday wish blowing out the candles, i always asked for world peace. so no surprise that over a decade ago i opposed the iraq war before it even started. it was appalling that we would invade a nation that hadn't provokeds, had nothing to do with 9/11, and did not have weapons of mass destruction. it was a lonely fight at that time. but i didn't do it to be loved. it was a matter of principle. barbara lee, maxinwaters, and i formed the triad, woolsey-waters-lee to organize our opposition. we held forums. we developed and out of iraq caucus. we traveled around the country. and in january, 2005, i offered the first amendment here on the house floor calling for our troops to be brought home. some of my own party thought that it was a mistake. that we wouldn't get any votes or enough votes and that we would be embarrassed. well, i told them that even if i were the only oneoting to bring our troops home, i would not be embarrassed. as it happened we got 128 bipartisan votes. that very first time. so you see, mr. speakerwhen you lead,people follow. because of a handful of progressive leaders and progressives in our country that were vocal and fearless, evtually public opinion turned. it turned against the iraq war, it turned towards peace. if we and otr outspoken advocates hadn't ignored conventional wisdom and had pressed for peace and hadn't -- hadn't pressed for peace, the war in iraq could still be going on today. in april mr. speaker, of004, i started speaking from this very spot on the house floor about my strong anti-iraq war conviction. eventually these speeches focused on afghanistan where we have now been waging war for more than 11 years, despite more than 2,000 americans dead and nearly $600 billion wasted. even though we are undermining our own interests and failing to bring security and stability to afghanistan. over the last eight-plus years, i have spoken here, nearly every day that i could. to drive home what a moral disaster and strategic failure these wars have been. when constituents and others call or come up to me or write and thank me, i say, but we are ill there. i don't deserve thanks until all of our troops are home. you know, mr. speaker, because you have been here for many of them, my speeches haven't just been about bringing our troops home, they have offered a new vision for global engagement. from here i have outlined my smart security platforwhich calls for development and diplomacy stead of invasions and occupations. civilian surges instead of military surges. smart security means helping other nations educate their children, care for their sick, and strengthen their democratic institution. smart security says we can make america safe by building international good will, by empowering people with humanitarian assistance instead of sending troops or launching one attacks. it's the right thing to do, it's the smart thg to do, and it costs pennies on the dollar compared to military force. so, mr. speaker, today i'm delivering that message for the 444th time and my final time on the house floor to speak on a five minute special order. this is the last of my special order speeches on war and p and smart security. i'm retiring from congress at the end of this year and i lieve part of my legacy will be that i worked diligently for peace and a safer world. so in closing, mr. speaker, i'd like to acknowledge that sometimes i have been accused of wanting a perfect world, but i consider that a compliment. our founders strove for a more perfect union, why shouldn't we aim for a perfect world? you see, i'm perfectly and absolutely certain that if we don't work toward a perfect world, we won't ever come close to providing a safe, healthy, and secure world for our grandchildren and their grandchildren. so i thank you, mr. speaker. and i thank my wonderful staff who had helped me over the last 20 years to work for a perfect world which means peace, health, >> replacing lynn woolsey in the 113th congress will be jared huffman. he defeated daniel roberts with 70% of the vote. he will represent the second district in california after serving g g g g g s in the state assembly. consume. mr. speaker, i rise today with my colleagues to pay special tribute to several members of the california democratic delegation. it whose service in congress is shortly coming to an end. these six members served this house and their constituents with dedication and deserve our gratitude for the hard work they have done on behalf of california and our country. representative joe baca who was elected in 2002, served for 10 years from the 43rd congressional district. representative howard berman elected in 1982 and served 30 years from the 28th district. representative bob filner sworn in this month as mayor of san diego and served for 20 years. representative laura richardson served for five years from the 37th district. representative pete stark, outgoing dean of our delegation was elected in 1972 and served more than 40 wreers from the 13th district. representative lynn woolsey served for 20 years from the 6th congressional district. much kk said about the distinguished careers of our departing colleagues, but i would like to offer a few remarks of the work i have joined them during their time here in the congress. representative howard berman has served the house for 30 years and i was honored to name him among my closest friends in this body. during his service, he worked on a wide of variety of issues and known as a champion of human rights and standing up for middle class, working class and for the poor in our country. as chair of the foreign affairs committee from 2007 to 2008, mr. berman made great progress on behalf of the less fortunate. he was a leader in securing reauthorization of our global hiv-aids program to help provide access to preventive services for millions and authored legislation removing nelson mandela and other members of the african congress on the terrorism list. finally he was a leader in raising concerns about human rights abuses around the world and key leader in bringing additional disclosure to the trade and conflict minerals that were financed the ongoing violence in the congo. he is a strong friend of israel and passionate about the need to achieve lasting peace and a broader coalition in the house of representatives. . i want to recognize mr. berman's work on behalf of immigration and those who emigrated to this country and his work on behalf of migrant workers and farm workers all across the united states. and for that effort he received the first annual farm worker justice award by the farm worker justice fund in 2000. like mr. berman, our dean, congressman pete stark, has spent his entire distinguished career in congress advocating on behalf of those voices who were often drowned out in washington by the influence of the moneyed interest. over the last 40 years, congressman stark has been one of the foremost advocates on behalf on efforts to ensure that americans were able to access quality, affordable health insurance. i am honored to have been one of the three principaled co- authors in the house of the historic affordable care act which will provide quality insurance for every single american. the key role mr. stark in drafting that law and made sure that the law provided needed relief for working families. this was a crucial accomplishment, yet it was far from mr. stark's only accomplishment in the field of health care. as a former chair and ranking democrat on the ways and means health subcommittee for many years, he was a leader on the health care reform. he was a lead author of the original cobra insurance bill which ensured that workers faced with losing their jobs would not also immediately lose access to the needed health insurance. and those of us who have gone through this recent downturn and recession in this country know from the testimony of our constituents how vital the access to cobra health insurance was to the health security for their families, to the financial security for their families. he also pie neared the efforts to make modern i.t. systems available and required within the health care systems of this country that will help us improve the outcomes of health care and hopefully drive down the cost of health care and provide better care for patients within this system. he i think along with sam gibbons of florida pie neared the idea that there should be medicare for all. and beat on -- pioneered the idea that there should be medicare for all and beat on that drum for a long time. it led to the improvements and passage of the affordable care act. he's also been obviously a campaigner on behalf of fairness in our tax code. and it's unfortunate that he's retiring from the congress because maybe we'll finally after since 1986 that we've addressed this issue, there might be a chance to get something done in the next congress. but he paved the way on so many of those issues. finally in my remarks at this moment, i'd like to highlight the work of an outstanding democrat on the subcommittee on work force protection of the education and labor committee and that is congresswoman lynn woolsey. congresswoman woolsey knows their struggles. four decades ago she was a single working mother supporting three children. she knows about the economic security of families. later as a resource manager she knew things like working families are still fighting for like paid leave, paid sick leave, retirement and health care. serving as chair and ranking member of the work force protection subcommittee, lynn woolsey was instrumental in helping to get the lilly ledbetter fair pay act signed into law and military families dealing with military deployment and injury. lynn woolsey was a partner to ensure coal miners are kept safe and healthy on the job. she went underground in a coal mine with our late colleague donald payne to require firsthand knowledge of how the workplace works and the environment in which those miners go to work every day. in the classroom, lynn woolsey continues to fight for women and working families. she was -- i want to say harsh, but i will say tough advocate. making sure that women were represented in the stem fields and the careers and women and young women had access to the sciences and to technology and to math and engineering. lynn woolsey worked to ensure kids had access at every education -- every education opportunity and a well-rounded curriculum to meet their social and emotional needs. american families have benefited from lynn woolsey's fierced a vow casey. harsh, spirited. that's our advocate, lynn. i will miss here contributions on the education committee for the years to come. she's fought tirelessly to protect the environment. most especially in the sonoma coast of san francisco bay and hopefully the president will follow her lead and designate further protections of our ocean and marine habitat in that area of our precious coast. i am very grateful for the members for the work they have done for america's middle class and the struggles -- those who struggle to join our middle class. the work they have done on behalf of their constituents and on behalf of the citizens of this country. they all came here to achieve accomplishments, to achieve success on behalf of their constituents, on behalf of this country, and they've succeeded. and i want to thank them so very much for their service, for their sacrifice, for the ingenuity, their innovation and i would say with these three for their spirited, tough, harsh, relentless pursuit of what they believed in terms of public policy and on my own behalf, i want to thank -- on behalf of our delegation and tens of millions of constituents that we represent in california, i want to thank representative baca, berman, filner, richardson, stark, woolsey for their service and their dedication. now i'd like to recognize other members of our delegation for the purposes of remarks. and i'd ask unanimous consent that i can revise and extend my remarks. mr. honda. i'll say to the members i think we have five or six or seven people. so however you use your time, be mindful of other members seeking to speak. thank you. mr. honda. mr. honda: thank you, mr. chairman. mr. speaker, it's with heavy heart but with great that i rise today and thank my departing california colleagues whose service will end at the end of 112th congress. pete stark is well-known for speaking his mind and standing up for what he believes in while giving a voice to the concerns of many who often feel as though they have none. he has helped millions of americans keep their health insurance coverage after leaving their jobs. ensure people who visit emergency rooms receive help regardless of their ability to pay and help in the affordable care act. he enacted legislation to increase the number of computers in our schools. he's been a champion on broad environmental issues like battling ozone depletion, carbon emissions and has been a proponent of peace. i am honored to gain work in fremont and hope his legacy. and his son, fish, who wrote and was published as an on ed piece independent -- op-ed piece indicating the true side, the real side of pete stark, his father. howard berman is widely known as a leader on foreign affairs, who will stand out in my mind, however, is his help while chairman of the committee on foreign affairs in moving through the committee in the house -- in house resolution 121. it was a resolution calling upon japan to apologize during the imperial army during world war ii, women forced into sexual slavery. he achieved justice for those who suffered atrocities in the past and his leadership will be missed. i also want to thank him for his leadership on the issue of pat tillman, soldier who was -- he lost his life in a firefight when in fact he was killed through -- and i want to appreciate that. lynn woolsey came to congress with a compelling story about how with the helping hand from her government she was able to raise three children by herself and have a successful career serving the people of marina and sonoma counties. she's been a tireless voice for family-friendly policies, for protecting the coastline of northern california and for bringing our troops home and ending the misguided wars in iraq and afghanistan. lynn was a leader of the congressional progressive caucus and i call her the mom of the caucus. and her passionate voice on progressive issues, she will be missed. her leadership will be missed and it will be a great vacuum for us to fill in the future. bob filner had a years' long odyssey for filipino veterans who fought along u.s. troops in world war ii but were denied benefits through their service. so the war -- the united states congress broke its promise it had made to these veterans and for decades to follow, they struggled to secure fair treatment, similar to that afforded to the men who fought alongside them. as chairman of veterans' affairs committee, bob filner was in the middle of this fight. i wish him well as he moves on to a new phase to his service to the people of san diego. jose baca, or joe baca, has been a friend of mine for a long time. school boards and all other elected offices, but since we served together in the california state assembly to the halls of congress, joe was chairman of the congressional hispanic caucus while i was chairman of the congressional asian pacific congressional caucus and we stood together to fight against harmful english-only and anti-immigrant legislation in amendments. we also share a commitment to protecting the rights of native americans. particularly tribal sovereignty. joe has been a good friend. i will miss him regularly on the house floor. perhaps in a couple of years we may see him again. i will miss laura richardson who i have had the pleasure of working with on anti-bullying issues. and end the fight to make sure that lbt families are recognized in our -- lgbt families are recognized in our family laws. and i move to a slightly larger accommodations and he was a strong voice on behalf of his central valley constituents. we also are bidding farewell to a large number of our california republican colleagues who served for many years. bilbray, mary bono mack, mr. galilee, wally herger, jerry lewis and dan lungren. while we all certainly haven't agreed on many policy i shallies over the yours -- issues over the years, i know they were committed to their constituents. and my california colleagues will be leaving at the end of the 112th congress, i wish them well. mr. miller: might i inquire of the chair the time i have left? the speaker pro tempore: 46 minutes. mr. miller: i want to yield to congresswoman lois capps. mrs. capps: i want to thank george miller for setting aside this hour and he just asked the amount of time and i take that to heart. we could all go at great lengths to all of these dear people who won't be with us in the next congress. and i add my congratulations for their service to republicans and all the democrats, all of us alike. but i will speak now for the six of our democratics colleagues who on behalf of them who will not come back. and i want to start with our dear friend, lynn woolsey, who because of whom i get compared, my progressive constituents often say to me, now, lois, why don't you vote more like lynn wolsy votes? and she -- wooledsy votes? and she was one of the first people i met. her story was compelling. as a woman member of congress, i don't know how it would be to raise kids by herself. she's a great voice and advocate for all mothers, all working families and particularly those who carry extra burdens themselves. she's put her heart and soul into her work in congress, and it shows. as i met you early on when i came here, i knew you were kind and befriended me. i know you served your constituents in the same passionate way. and i thank you for the role model you've provided me. howard berman has provided another kind of role model for me. my husband before me came to congress in part to work on middle eastern issues. and there's a go-to person in this congress that i always relied upon for advice and support in that area, and that's howard berman. he's a congressperson's congressman, in my opinion. and my human rights watch folks have held him in such high esteem. it's been a very great honor to serve almost as a neighbor to him. with his district in the central valley, san fernando valley, and mine on the coast, it's been a real joy to have him as a colleague here, and i will treasure always his role in getting me elected and also keeping me here. . i came to congress from the health care field, so the name i heard often was congressman pete stark. and been here since the 1970's. knows all about health care and i'm pleased, mr. stark, that you have been here through the passage of the affordable care act. that's a crowning jewel for you and all of us. but you have been through many health care ups and downs over the years and been a role model for me being on the ways and means committee and the house committee in energy and commerce. thank you for your service and friendship. it is hard to go through this list. mr. miller, this is a wonderful privilege to say thank you, the countless hours that you could add up for the service to constituents and the tremendous leadership within this body and these members who have given their all and will not be back at the 113th. it's important to say their names and to honor them and give them credit for what they have done. joe baca has been a fixture for the central valley and agriculture, someone who has agriculture number one in my district as well. but there is much to remember joe baca for and his contributions in agriculture and the financial services committee as well. my colleague, former colleague, bob filner, who has already assumed another position within our government, as mayor of san diego. i think of bob filner and i think of veterans' issues and he was a college professor before he came to congress, as my husband was and reached out to each other in that capacity. he has worked hard on veterans' issues. i have 50,000 veterans in my district. so the g.i. bill is often something i can give him credit for and work with my veterans with. and finally laura richardson, it's my daughter's name, but i think of her beautiful singing voice and to my colleague who has given tremendous leadership within the congress as well, but you'll take your beautiful voice with you. i have been able to work with laura on transportation issues as they relate particularly to our ports, because she is known for her work with the port of long beach and i have ports in my district as well. and will be missed on the women's softball team. we are friends here. we are colleagues here. we bring our human qualities. and we bring our leadership skills. and the california delegation makes me proud every day and in the next congress, it will be the memories and the service that has been given to us from these colleagues of ours. and that's why i thank you, mr. miller, for setting aside this hour for us to share our thoughts. >> i saw that andrew and hunter are here. the stark kids. i would like to yield to congresswoman barbara lee. ms. lee: thank you very much. and i want to thank you, congressman miller, for organizing this special order tonight. first to congressman pete stark, who is our departing dean of the california delegation, congressman stark represents a district right next door to my district in the east bay of california, northern california. i just have to say, i have known congressman stark since i was the president of the black student union at mills college in the early 1970's. and i will never forget this. i wrote then my congressman stark a letter on behalf of the students at mills college with a request and he responded so quickly. and replied to that request in a positive way. so on behalf of all those students then, congressman stark, and on behalf of myself today, i just want to say thank you, thank you for demonstrating what exemplary constituent service was all about. i have known congressman stark probably more than most members here because i had the privilege to work with a great statesman and known congressman stark during that period. we always say we have some of the most outspoken and well informed and engaged people in this nation, and congressman stark certainly has been at the forefront of making sure that his district became closer to our federal government and brought the government to the people of his district. and so the east bay thanks you, congressman stark yt and our entire delegation thanks you for so many years of great public service. i was fortunate to be on the house foreign aquares committee with chairman howard berman. and i tell you, howard berman's understanding of global affairs is unmatched. also, i just have to say, he was such a tremendous asset in our global fight against hiv-aids and really got it so early and helped us negotiate and put together the bills that have been so successful in moving us toward an aids-free generation. i have to say with regard to chairman berman, i appreciate his fairness and his objectivity and his commitment to global peace and security. it's an honor to have served with him and i'm going to miss him because i honor him as my friend and i know all of us are going to miss him. but i know we will work with him in the future on so many issues that he cares about. congressman filner is leaving a strong legacy of support for our nation's veterans who have benefit touchdown tremendously from his knowledge and impassioned add vow cast si. congressman filner was a freedom rider and brought the spirit of justice to his work here in congress. congressman filner has done an exemplary job as ranking member and chair of the veterans affairs committee, as we have heard earlier and our

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