The speaker pro tempore on this vote, the yeas are 24 the nays are are 242 the nays are 184, with one voting present. The bill is passed. Without objection the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. The speaker pro tempore the house will be in order. The house will be in order. All members please take your conversations off the floor. The house will be in order. Please clear the well of the house. The house will be in order. For what purpose does the gentleman from washington seek recognition . Madam speaker i ask unanimous consent to speak out of order for one minute. The speaker pro tempore without objection the gentleman is recognized. Thank you. If i could have everyones attention please. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman will suspend. Please take your conversations off the floor of the house. The gentleman from washington is recognized. Thank you, madam speaker. I just wanted everybody to hear this because this is a very important week. This is National Police week. Mr. Reichert on friday is peace officer memorial day. Today i have with me my two good friends who have served in Law Enforcement, and there are some others, i think in our body that have had that experience. I brought some backup today with me. But i think that, you know, everybody year we take a moment to recognize our Law Enforcement officers across this great nation, the men and women who wear the uniform, who wear the badge who protech our families and communities this year, 273 names will be added to the memorial wall. 273 names. Already this year we have lost 44 Police Officers in the line of duty. 44. Already this year. That is one Police Officer dying in the line of duty every 3 1 2 days. Every 3 1 2 days. Ladies and gentlemen, madam speaker, these men and Women Deserve our praise, they deserve our thanks, and they deserve recognition that we can give them today on the floor of the house. They have families here who have lost loved ones at the service friday. The president will be there to address them and we rise today, the three of us together, ask for a moment of silence to honor those who have lost their lives in the line of duty. The speaker pro tempore all members present will rise. The speaker pro tempore without objection fiveminute voting will continue. The Unfinished Business is the question on passage of h. R. 248 on which the yeas and nays are ordered. The clerk will report the title of the bill. The clerk Union Calendar number 77 h. R. 2048 a bill to reform the authorities of the federal government to require the production of certain business records, conduct electronic surveillance, use pen registers and trap and trace device and use other forms of information gathering for foreign intelligence, counterterrorism and criminal purposes and for other purposes. The speaker pro tempore the question is on passage of the bill. Members will record their votes by electronic device. This is a fiveminute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc. , in cooperation with the United States house of representatives. Any use of the closedcaptioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u. S. House of representatives. ] the speaker pro tempore on this vote the yeas are 338 and the nays are 88. The bill is passed. Without objection, the motion to reconsider is laid on the table. The house will come to order. Pursuant to clause 8 of rule 20, the Unfinished Business is the question on agreeing to the speakers approval of the journal which the chair will put de novo. The question is on agreeing to the speakers approval of the journal. Those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no. In the opinion of the chair, the ayes have it. And the journal stands approved. For what purpose does the gentleman from california seek recognition . Mr. Speaker. The speaker pro tempore order in the house, please. The gentleman from california. Mr. Royce mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous consent that debate under clause 1c of rule 15 on a motion to suspend the rules relating to h. R. 1191 be extended to one hour. The speaker pro tempore without objection, it is so ordered. Mr. Royce thank you mr. Speaker. The speaker pro tempore the house will come to order. Does the gentleman from texas seek recognition . I do, mr. Speaker. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman from texas. Mr. Speaker, i ask unanimous consent that all members may have five legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous material on h. R. 1735. The speaker pro tempore without objection. Pursuant to house the speaker pro tempore pursuant to House Resolution 255 and rule 18, the chair declares the house in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for the consideration of h. R. 1735. The chair appoints the gentleman from louisiana, mr. Graves, to preside over the committee of the whole. The chair the house is in the committee of the whole house on the state of the union for consideration of h. R. 1735 which the clerk will report by title. The clerk a bill to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2016 for military activities of the department of defense and for military construction, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year and for other purposes. The chair pursuant to the rule, the bill is credit the first time. The gentleman from texas considered as read the first time. The gentleman from texas, mr. Thornberry, and mr. Smith is recognized for 30 minutes. The chair recognizes the gentleman from texas. Mr. Thornberry thank you mr. Chairman. I yield myself four minutes. The chair the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Thornberry mr. Chairman the committee is not in order. The chair the gentleman is correct. The committee will be in order. The gentleman is recognized. Mr. Thornberry mr. Speaker, im proud to bring to the floor h. R. 1735, the National Defense authorization act for fiscal year 2016. This measure was reported by the Armed Services committee by a vote of 60 members voting for and two members voting against. Of the two members there was one from each party. This bill follows the bipartisan tradition of the committee working collaboratively with an integrated staff to support the men and women who serve and protect our nation. All members of the committee have contributed to this product and im very grateful for all of their efforts throughout the year. Im especially grateful to the efforts of the Ranking Member mr. Smith, for not only for his contributions and for his partnership in the committee but doing so at a time where hes been dealing with surgeries and a variety of things. But it has been a true pleasure and continues to be to work with him for the benefit of our nation. Mr. Chairman, this bill authorizes spending for the department of defense at a level that is consistent with the congressional budget resolution and a level that is consistent with the president s budget request. So there have been differences and there will continue to be some differences about how that spending gets categorized but when you add it up all together, this authorization measure meets exactly what the president has asked for which is essentially 611. 9 billion for National Defense. And included is a programbyprogram authorization for all of that spending, whether its in the overseas contingency account or the base budget it is all authorized program by program. This bill contains some significant reforms, including acquisition reform to improve the way the department purchases goods and services. Weve been working with the pentagon and with industry to thin out regulations, simplify the process and make it easier to hold industry and government personnel accountable for the results. This bill has overhead reform to reduce the amount of money that we are spending on overhead and bureaucracy so that more resources can be devoted to the men and women on the front lines. And this measure has reform in the area of personnel pay and benefits. Of the 15 recommendations by the personnel commission, this measure does something in 11 of those 15 so that we can be in better shape to continue to recruit and retain the top quality people that our nation needs for decades to come. Now some people say, well, theres too much reform here. Some people say theres not enough reform here. There isnt enough. If enough means you solve all the problems, but theres a start at significant reform that helps make sure we get better value for the money we spend and also that the department is more agile in meeting the National Security challenges we face. Mr. Chairman, this morning in reading the papers, i made some notes about the headlines. Just in one newspaper today, may 13, 2015. And some of those headlines are cags kerry meets putin u. S. Ways to meet china in the South China Sea fresh earthquake rattles napal. And i know those involved in the helicopter, which hasnt been found certainly, are certainly in our thoughts and prayers because it is mr. Chairman, i yield myself one additional minute. The chair the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Thornberry our military is called upon to do humanitarian efforts. Somali man plead guilty in terror the plot, assad still has chemical plans. The list goes on and on. This is the world we face. This is the world we send our men and women out into to protect us and to defend our nation. They deserve the best from us. They deserve something other than political games. They should not be used as pawns to make a point. They should we should give them our best by doing our job under the constitution just as they give us their best in defending this country. Therefore, mr. Chairman, i think this bill, 17 h. R. 1735 deserves the support of all members in this house, and i hope they will do so. I reserve the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman from texas reserves. The gentleman from washington is recognized. Mr. Smith thank you mr. Speaker. I yield myself five minutes. The chair the gentleman is recognized for five minutes. Mr. Smith thank you. I want to congratulate the chairman. This is his first year as chairman his hard work on this bill and there are lots of good things in this bill. Most prominently is the reform the chairman mentioned, the compensation reform. We formed a commission to study how we do personnel compensation and the retirement system and a very rare move we actually followed some of the advice of the commission in this bill and made, i think some very positive reforms to the personnel compensation system. There were a variety of other reforms that chairman worked on that are important and theres also a whole slew of provisions in there that do in fact do an excellent job ever providing for the men and job of providing for the men and women who protect our country. There are positive things about this bill and i appreciate the hard work of everyone involved. Unfortunately for the first time in 19 years i am going to be opposing the ndaa on the floor for two reasons but one is the big one and it is understanding how our budget has worked. We have not had a normal budget appropriations process since 2011 and this has affected every single government agency. And keep that fact in mind. Not just the department of defense. Ill talk about the department of defense at length, but the lack of a normal appropriations budget process has impacted every single federal agency. Transportation, infrastructure, education, housing on down the line. Ever since 2011 they have faced but one Government Shutdown and a succession of threatened Government Shutdowns and continuing resolutions. This has made it absolutely impossible to plan long term, and also has cut a pretty dramatic amount of money out of all these agencies and its been particularly hard on the department of defense that tries to do a fiveyear plan when theyre figuring out what they can procure. This sort of halt, stop, were going to fund you, were not going to fund you, well shut down the government, c. R. Has had a devastating impact to fund the government. The budget resolution passed by the house and the senate this year does not fix that because it relies on the overseas Contingency Operation fund which is limiting. Its oneyear money. It, again does not allow the department of defense to be planned. I want everyone to know that secretary of Defense Ash Carter in the senate is opposed in the senate testified on why o. C. O. Funding 38 billion of defense bill through o. C. O. Was unacceptable and he doesnt support it and doesnt support this bill. But the reason we oppose this and this is very important to understand to fix the problem, to get us to the point where we can fund defense and Everything Else in a reasonable way, we need to get rid of the budget caps from the budget control act. Thats the only way. And we do not do that here. We take money out of the overseas Contingency Operation fund to give defense 38 billion additional. In one sense mr. Thornberry is wrong when he says in all senses what we do here matches what the president did. Within the defense budget, the number is the same, but the president s budget also lifted the budget caps for the 11 other Appropriations Bills. And i know we serve on the Armed Services committee and ive heard members of the Armed ServicesCommittee Say dont talk to me about that stuff. I serve on the Armed Services committee. I want to know what neighborhood those people live in because roads and bridges and schools and housing, it affects all of us and those budget caps remain in place. What this defense bill does unfortunately is it locks in the republican budget. It locks in the deal they made with the senate to continue to provide devastating cuts at the budget control act level for Everything Else and then let defense and only defense out of jail in an awkward sort of back door way through the overseas Contingency Operation, so to agree to this bill is to agree to cut in those 11 other bills, to cuts in transportation, to cuts in research the cuts at n. I. H. And c. D. C. And all of these programs that we care about. If we accept this, then those cuts are locked into place. I support this level but i also support lifting the budget caps for all of the other areas of our government that are facing the same sort of devastating cuts and difficulties that the Defense Department has. So if we agree to this, we lock in the budget we lock in the budget. Lastly, i want to point out that the president has said he does not support this process. He opposes all the Appropriations Bills and he will oppose this defense bill. And the president hasnt gone away. And there is not a sustainable veto override number for those Appropriations Bills in the house and the senate. So everything that we are doing on this bill and in the Appropriations Bills i yield myself two additional minutes. Ch the chair the gentleman is recognized. Mr. Smith everything were done on this between now and october is, and i know the republican plan is to hope the president just sort of changes his mind and signs all those bills, i consider that highly unlikely, so whats going to happen is were going to get to october and this is all going to blow up anyway because the president s not going to sign it. Hes still there. I know the republicans won the senate but the president didnt go anywhere. The constitution didnt change. Nothing becomes law unless he signs it. So what i urge is that the president , the house and the senate all senate, all three, sit down and come up with a budget solution that ends the budget caps for all of these bills, so we can start working on something thats real. I mean, this 38 billion is great like i said between here and when it heads up pennsylvania avenue its going away. Then were going to have to double back and try to fix this anyway. I guess all im saying is, we should start now instead of risking another Government Shutdown risking another continuing resolution and get a true budget agreement. That actually addresses the budget control act in its entirety, doesnt just find a sort of awkward workaround through the overseas Contingency Operation just to take care of defense. I support this level but not this way. It has two devastating impact too devastating impact on the rest of our budget and as secretary of defense said, o. C. O. Funding is no way to fund the Defense Department, if its not legitimately for o. C. O. Expenses. With that i reserve the balance of my time. The chair the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. The gentleman from texas is recognized. I yield myself 30 seconds. I have enormous respect for the distinguished Ranking Member. I think its a hard argument to make that were going to oppose the bill that takes care of our men and women in the military because we want to try to Pressure Congress and the president to reach an agreement on spending on other stuff. Mr. Thornberry i think thats if how could that possibly happen in this bill . It cant. That requires other legislation and i think thats a poor reason to oppose this bill. Mr. Chairman i would yield at this point two minutes to my friend and colleague, the chairman of the subcommittee on readiness, mr. Witman. The chair the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. Mr. Wittman thank you, mr. Chairman. I want to commend chairman thornberry and the members of the Armed Services committee on a very strong mark and i especially want to thank my distinguished Ranking Member for working with m