Respond to recent devastating natural disasters. Over the past two months, millions of americans have had their lives forever altered by destructive hurricanes in texas, florida, puerto rico, and the Virgin Islands. By raging and by raging and tedly wildfires in the west. We all support those who were victimized, particularly those who lost lives, lost their lives or lost lowed ones and will continue to be with them every step of the way with the federal support they need as they recover and rebuild. Our thanks go to the First Responders, volunteers and states, who have saved countless lives, protected communities and demonstrated the best of human tainity. That includes fema, the army corps of engineers, the department of defense, the coast guard, and many other federal agencies. For getting the first installment of relief to those in need. However, with such massive unprecedented damage, more help is needed. Clearly needed to continue to respond to these Recovery Efforts to rebuild communities with dollars, with resources, with manpower and with our support. This emergency funding legislation, the second installment, addresses urgent shortterm immediate priorities. Replenishing femas its aer relief fund, supporting ongoing federal wildlife suppression effort, providing debt relief for the federal Flood Insurance program, and other assistance that will help our fellow americans in their time of greatest need. To summarize, 36. 5 billion provided in this bill, in total 18. 7 billion is provided for the Disaster Relief fund. This includes 13. 77 billion for the most Immediate Response needs. Lifesaving missions, emergency protection, repair and restoration of Public Infrastructure like communications, power, transportation, and yes, shelter. And Financial Assistance to individuals and families affected as they rebuild their lives. This package also includes 4. 9 billion for Community Disaster loans which will ensure local governments are able to provide basic Municipal Service such as police and Fire Protection and public education. Throughout this trying time. In addition to these Disaster Relief funds, this bill provides a onetime payment of 1. 27 billion to allow puerto rico and our fellow citizens to receive the same access to emergency disaster Nutrition Program benefits that other states receive. The bill also ensures that the national Flood Insurance program is able to meet its existing claim obligations as americans cope with the tremendous flood damage to their homes and communities. For wildlife suppression, the as contains 576. 5 million we see in the situation out west has grown even more desperate and deadly. We must ensure that those heroic firefighters can continue to save lives and protect property. As we know, the needs of each disaster area are everchanging. Consequently, our Appropriations Committee and all of our members continue to monitor the progress of Recovery Efforts as well as anticipate emerging needs. This will be a long process, mr. Speaker. This second package package or installment of federal support will certainly in the be all that is needed over the long term. Mr. Speaker, i urge support of the of this bill, its important for the nation, for the communities affected, and i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentlelady from new york is recognized. Mrs. Lowey mr. Speaker, i yield myself two minutes. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady is recognized. Mrs. Lowey since Hurricane Harvey wrought historic flooding in texas, 12 major disasters have been declared. From a hurricane that damaged large swaths of florida, storms that annihilated puerto rico and the Virgin Islands, and wildfires burning in the west, americans deserve certainty the federal government will stand by them in their time of need. This is particularly important after the president threatened to abandon puerto rico in his latest twitter this morning. Congress cannot turn its back on recovery, no matter how reckless the president s outbursts may wile take you back live now to the house floor for additional debate and votes. Live coverage on cspan. Title the bill. The clerk h. R. 2810, an act to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2018 for military activities of the department of defense, for military construction and for Defense Activities of the department of energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year and for other purposes. The speaker pro tempore is there objection to the gentlemans request . Hearing none, without objection, so ordered. Without objection, a motion to rereconsider is laid on the table. For what purpose does the gentleman from rhode island seek recognition . I have a motion to instruct conferees at the desk. The speaker pro tempore the clerk will report the motion. The clerk the gentleman from rhode island moves to instruct the members of the house at the conference to the bill h. R. 2810 be instructed as follows. One, to disagree with subsection c of section 336 of the Senate Amendment, two, to receive from section 1064 of the house bill, three, to disagree with section 1087 of the Senate Amendment. The speaker pro tempore pursuant to clause 7 of rule 22, the gentleman from rhode island, mr. Langevin, and the gentleman from texas, mr. Thornberry, each will control 30 minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from rhode island. Mr. Langevin thank you, mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as i may consume. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Langevin mr. Speaker, the army has a surplus of pistols, the m1911a145 caliber pistol, the armed forbeses standard issue sidearm for more than 50 years, it was replaced in 1980 by a newer model. Since then, the army accumulated pistolsf surplus m1911 housed in alabama. Theres no National Security reason to keep these pistols. The army stopped issuing them 30 them 30 years ago. Et the army has been prevented from disposing of them due to the civilian Marksmanship Program. The c. M. P. Want to transfer the pistols to a private corporation so they can sell them. Do we want this to happen . We have the opportunity in this years ndaa to stop this transfer of tens of thousands of m1911 pistol which is continues a multimillion dollar government giveaway. Which constitutes a multimillion dollar government giveaway. Its also important to note that this would make our streets more dangerous at a time when gun violence is all too common. The c. M. P. Was established in 1903, just to put this in historical context, following e spanishamerican war, when militiamen demonstrated poor marksmanship. At that time we needed a better train and organized militia and the c. M. P. Helped build a broader base of citizen soldiers. It was an important component of our National Defense back then. Today, over a century later, we have a professional military and many rifle clubs and the crmplet m. P. Is, quite frankly, no longer needed. Congress clearly understood this when it privatized the c. M. P. In 1996. As an initial Capital Investment at a time when earmarks were still common, congress provided the newly chartered corporation with a stock of rifle, ammunition and other spare parts. The c. M. P. Could sell the surplus equipment, mostly m1 rifles in order to fund its activities until it became selfsufficient. However, it was never Congress Intent to equip the c. M. P. With withuns or or provide them those pistols at the time. More than two decades later, the c. M. P. Is running out of rifle tots sell. The reality is that it is in dire financial strait tts tissue financial straits as more than 20 years later theyre reliant on rifle sales to support its activities. Mr. Speaker, it is clearly not the taxpayers responsibility to bail out the c. M. P. To do so would be an unprecedented government handout at a time when earmarks have been banned for years. So what make this is program, what makes this so special . There is none. Beyond this, it would flood our streets with handguns, the guns most often used by criminals. I believe this would be extremely dangerous. When more than two years ago a first attempt was made to effectuate this earmark i heard the argument that storing surplus pistols as the army is now doing is a waste of government funds. Well, i agree. However, a handout is not the answer. There is no National Security reason to put these guns on our streets. In fact, the number of an increase in the number of handguns will only result potentially in more violence. We should allow the army to dispose of these pistols by melting them down as it plans to do with other surplus arms. I urge my colleagues to instruct the conferees to rejection the exemption. No reason to flood our streets with the pistols. There is no reason to give an earmark to a private corporation. They should be melted down and repurposed for other military uses, which is what this motion supports. With that, mr. Speaker, i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from texas is recognized. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise against the motion to instruct. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Thornberry and yield myself such time as i may consume. Mr. Speaker, i believe that this is the first motion to instruct that the house has voted on so far this year and this congress. D so not all members may realize that as the house and senate are about to go to Conference Committee to work out differences in the house and Senate Versions of whatever bill they are focused on, procedurally it is possible to have a motion to instruct conferees, such as the gentleman from rhode island has offered. Binding motion is not on the conferees, but it is an attempt to have a vote on an issue that a member or group bi on the of members thinks is important or they can make a point upon. The subject of this motion to instruct is the disposal of excess weapons, as the gentleman from rhode island mentioned, i would just say, mr. Speaker, i of no evidence that as the government has over the years disposed of these weapons, there is any evidence that any of them have been improperly used. They must be disposed of fully consistent with the law. That includes background checks and the rest. And the proceeds support safety programs, which i would suspect a all of us think are worthwhile endeavor. I would also say, mr. Speaker, the house has regularly a worthwhile expressed its opinion, its will with amendment votes, both on the floor and in committee, over the years. We have voted on this program a number of times. And it is consistently it has consistently been the will of the house this program should continue. In this years bill we had a vote in committee and the amendment to provide for this program was adopted. So to me, mr. Speaker, the most important point to make is this. Is one that e us helps this Congress Fulfill the first responsibilities of the federal government. Citizens. Defend our is one tht it also provides the support that the men and women who serve our nation and the military must have if they are to carry out citizens. S that is the purpose of this bill. That is the focus of this bill defend the country and to support our troops. And that will continue to be the focus as the house and senate moves into conference. At this point i would reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman reserves. The gentleman from rhode island is recognized. Million langevin i certainly have Great Respect for the chairman and his leadership for the Armed Services committee. No one questions his commitment to defending the nation in support of our military. But we dont need to support earmarks to private corgses. With that im proud to yield two minutes to the gentleman from california, mr. Carbajal. The speaker pro tempore gentleman from california is recognized. Mr. Carbajal thank you, mr. Langy vifpblet thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, i rise today to speak against provisions in the house and senate National Defense authorization act that would allow the transfer of all surplus pistols to the civilian Marksmanship Program, c. M. P. , for sale to the public. Allowing the transfer of this large volume of guns for sale to the public moves the c. M. P. Into the retail gun market and away from hits statutory mandated functions. This is a program meant to instruct citizens in marksmanship and promote safety in the use of firearms. Not to deal firearms. The army has opposed such provisions in the past, and i am here to oppose any ndaa provisions that would allow the transfer of any surplus army firearms to the cmp. I join my colleague, mr. Langevin, in calling for all surplus firearms to be melted down and not distributed to the public. There are over 300 million guns in america. Nearly one for every citizen. We have lost way too many lives to gun violence. The department of defense should not participate in freely distributing third guns on to our streets. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The gentleman from rhode island reserves. Mr. Langevin i reserve the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from texas is recognized. Mr. Thornberry im pleased to yield such time he may consume to the gentleman from alabama, mr. Rogers. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Rogers i thank you. I thank the chairman. Thank you, mr. Speaker. The civilian Marksmanship Program is an organization that was established initially by congress. Because we needed institutions to help people bert understand gun safety. And better understand gun safety congress. And how to handle weapons. It has fulfilled a Vital Mission. Fortunately until recent years we have been able to not have to fund it anymore by being able to self fund through the refurbishment and sale of surplus weapons. It has been their mission for a century. These 1911s are surplus pistols that were used up in thele early 90s by our military. Since that time, statutorily, law were made available to enforcement and allied countries, but as you might imagine most Law Enforcement and allied countries would rather have new modern weapons rather than surplus. So we have approximately 100,000 of these weapons in storage at the depot in my district. It costs us approximately little over 50,000, 60,000 a year in direct costs to store these weapons. What the Armed Services ommittee and this congress has repeatedly is instruct the department of the army to start turning those over to the civilian Marksmanship Program, 10,000 a year, until the full 100,000 has been eliminated from our storage. The c. M. P. , this Marksmanship Program takes those weapons as they get them, completely refurbishes them, and it sells them to collectors. These are not weapons that wind up on the streets. They generally will cost between 800 and 1,000 and they are sold to collectors. To buy one you have to go throughout same background checks as any other buyer, but you cant not just anybody can buy theesms you have to be either in Law Enforcement, military, or you have to be a member of an active member of a gun club. So these are not a danger to the public. In fact, they are i think, this whole process of taking this money that the c. M. P. , sells the weapons for, and goes into their trust fund to allow them to continue to train americans in gun safety is a Vital Mission that we should be supporting in this congress, and this congress has repeatedly supported it over the years. Its my hope that the full body will reject this motion by my friend and colleague, mr. Langevin. Repeatedly defeated in Armed Services committee, and it will be defeated again today. With that i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from texas continues to reserve. The gentleman from rhode island is recognized. Mr. Langevin thank you, mr. Speaker. I would just mention there are many wonderful organizations around the country, meritorious organization that is would love to have earmarks, but we dont do earmarks anymore. It will ben today. With that i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from texas continues to with that i yield to yield hree minutes to the gentlelady from nevada, ms. Rosen. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady is recognized. Miss rosen thank you. Ms. Rosen mr. Speaker, i rise in opposition to the provision in the ndaa authorizing the transfer of nearly 100,000 surplus military grade firearms to the civilian Marksmanship Program for sale to the public. This multimillion dollar government handout to a private corporation is bad policy. It places more military grade weapons on our streets and in our communities. The horrific violence on the first of october in las vegas,ed deadliest mass shooting in modern american history, has forever altered the lives of hundreds of thousands of related to those 22,000 victims that were there the day of the shooting. So it is now more urgent than meaningful take action on passing gun safety measures. That should be our priority. And yet here were taking a step backwards. Instead of bringing legislation on the floor to ban the manufacture of bump stocks that action on allow semiautomatic rifles to fire hundreds of rounds per minute, instead of being on the floor to ban high capacity passion, or instead of