Communities deserve far better than the defense bill that passed today. The hidden provision in the amended h. R. 3979 to authorize training and arming the socalled moderate Syrian Rebels for the next two years with no limit on how much money can be spent has seriously polluted this critical piece of legislation. I could not in good conscience vote to support the socalled moderate forces who often work hand in hand with al qaeda or isis and whose personnel and weapons often end up in the hands of those terrorists. This bill continues the same failed practices of undeclared war, regime change and nation building that have held us mired in the middle east for over a decade. Mr. You very much, speaker. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady yields back the balance of her time. For what purpose does the gentleman from tennessee seek recognition . The gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Speaker, a columnist wrote the following in one of the capitol hill newspapers several weeks ago. Mr. Duncan if you spent 13 years pounding money down a rat hole with little to show for it, you might wake up one morning and say, hey, im going to stop pounding money down this rat hole. Unfortunately the u. S. Government does not think that way. The u. S. Government wakes up every morning and says the rat hole is looking a little bit empty today, lets pound a few more billion dollars down there. When that rat hole is afghanistan, the billions are essentially without end. He added that weve spent several billion trying to stop openum production there, but during u. S. Occupation drug production in afghanistan has actually increased. By one very conservative estimate, we have spent 753 billion on the war in afghanistan since 2001. The defense bill today contains 63. 7 billion for the overseas contingency account, meaning many billion morse for the rat hole in afghanistan more for the rat hole in afghanistan. When will we come to our senses, mr. Speaker . I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. For what purpose does the gentleman from georgia seek recognition . The gentleman is recognized for one minute. Thank you, mr. Speaker. I rise in support of senate bill 2673, the United States israeli United Statesisraeli Strategic Partnership act it. Includes language from the enhancement act. Mr. Collins the enhancement act is a bill i sponsored and was supported by unanimous this body. My bill provided for the review of israels q. M. E. At shorter intervals from four years to two years, and im honored the review language made it into the Strategic Partnership act. Both pieces of legislation recognize israels residents in residence in a neighborhood of bad actors. Since the establishment of israel it has endured several extended Armed Conflicts with its neighbors from 1948 through the latest conflict with hamas. Israel has endured constant threats. Another constant is israel is able to depend upon the u. S. For military assistance. During the war of 1973, the u. S. Conducted one of the largest airlifts in u. S. History to assist israel. Today we stand on the floor of the house in support of a bill to increase this military assistance and to increase the help to our friend, israel. With that i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. For what purpose does the gentleman from illinois seek recognition . The gentleman is recognized. Mr. Speaker, today i want to recognize a good friend and a very important member of my Hometown Community of taylorville, illinois. Mr. Davis the president and c. E. O. Of Taylor Memorial hospital is retiring after 34 years in the health care industry. Dan started with taylorville Memorial Hospital in 1995 when it was known as st. Vincent memorial. And it was also where my wife worked. And has served the community as c. E. O. For 19 years. With dans leadership and a dedication, t. M. H. Has remained a staple in the taylorville community. It is taylorvilles largest employer and t. M. H. Has given so much back to the community. As a matter of fact, its been 4 4. 9 million in Community Benefits just in the year 2013 alone. T. M. H. Is one of nine critical access hospitals located in the 13th district of illinois and they play a vital role in ensuring that Rural Communities are served so that our citizens get the health care they deserve. As taylorville and Central Illinois continues to thrive, i know that t. M. H. Will be part of that success and that is a direct result of dan rabbs leadership. I want to thank dan for his 34 years of service, congratulate him on his retirement and my wife shannon and i wish him and his wife mary and their two ly, the , joe and em best of luck in the future emily, the best of luck in the future and with his retirement. I yield back the balance of my time. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. For what purpose does the gentleman from kentucky seek recognition . I ask unanimous consent to address the house for one minute and revise and extend my remarks. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman is recognized for one minute. Mr. Speaker, as the cosponsor of the achieving a better Life Experience act, also known as the able act, i rise today to commend the house for yesterday passing this important piece of legislation that will help millions of americans reach their full potential. As the brother of a physically disabled sister who has lived with the challenges associated with being physically hands capped, over a dozen surgery, hip and knee replacements, walking with crutches or walkers, and sometimes reliant on a wheelchair, i know how difficult it can be for millions of americans with disabilities and their families. Mr. Barrow but i also know mr. Barr but i also know from my sister who graduated from college, went on to seminary, married her college sweetheart, adopted a beautiful little girl and now serves others as a priest that the challenges associated with being handicapped can be overcome. The able act will help ease financial strains faced by millions of americans with disabilities and their families and help them save for the future by creating taxfree savings accounts available to cover disabilityrelated expenses. This provides families with a severely disabled child some peace of mind by allowing them to save for their childs longterm disability expenses. We are better off as a nation when disabled americans are given the tools like the able act to not only achieve selfsufficiency but contribute and give back to our society. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. For what purpose does the gentlelady from texas seek recognition . Ms. Jackson lee ask unanimous consent to address the house and revise and extend. The speaker pro tempore the gentlelady is recognized for one minute. Ms. Jackson lee briefly on the floor of the house today i mentioned how many times i voted for the Defense Authorization bill and appreciated the underlying principles in that legislation. Which is the to wholly support the United States military and their families. Today unfortunately layered down with poisonous pills on the floor of the house the majority did not give this congress the opportunity to debate the questions of war and peace. And so i ask my colleagues and the leadership to let us debate this issue next week or come back or, as we begin 2015, whenever we put our sons and daughters in harms way, it is extremely important to do so. Let me change to another topic very quickly and acknowledge and give my sympathy to the Garner Family and indicate that im going to begin an assessment of the criminal Justice System that includes a review of training for our Law Enforcement across america, will include the utilization of stop and frisk citations so that racial profiling can stop and will be an overview of the grand jury system which is obviously broken. My sympathy again to the brown family, to the Garner Family, sean bell, Trayvon Martin, robbie tullen who lives and many, many others. Mr. Speaker, let me finally say, this congress cannot turn its head away from a broken criminal Justice System. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleladys time has expired. The chair lays before the house the following personal requests. The clerk leaves of be a a sense requested for mr. Aderholt of alabama for today, mr. Cab wanta mr. Capuano for tuesday, december 2, wednesday december 3, and thursday, december 4, and mr. Doyle of pennsylvania for today. The speaker pro tempore without objection, the requests are granted. Under the speakers announced policy of january 3, 2013, the gentleman from michigan, mr. Rogers, is recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader. Mr. Rogers thank you, mr. Speaker. Im honored to be here. I dont often come to the well of the house for two or three minutes, let alone 60 minutes. But today is special. Certainly for me. I think for my family, for my extended family and staff who are here today. This is my chance to really say thank you and had a heck of a good ride serving the people of the eighth district back home. I have some thank yous up front to my wife, christie, who is here, who is both my best friend and the love of my life. Thank you for being here. This is going to be harder than maybe i imagined. To my family, erin and john, thanks for weathering the storm , for a member of congress who is more often gone at times they should be home. As a matter of fact, i remember i nye i was getting in trouble when my daughter who was going into the fifth grade and because i would fly out to washington from michigan every week, i had scheduled mondays as lunch day at her local school for years. And so i got the lecture going into her fifth grade year that i would have to stay within a zone of her when i came to lunch. I was no longer able to sit next to her at the lunching tables because that after all would be god awful, to have your father at lunch with you in the fifth grade. So i did get to sit across from her for about one who are year and going into the sixth grade by the way, that was pretty much done. To everybody who had the great privilege to walk these halls, putting the visitors and including the visitors and folks at home, i hope you still have that rev rabs for this building reverence for this building, for this institution. For what it means not just to america but to the world. I know i did every single day that i walked these halls. This morning when i came in, still got that little tingle about what it meant to be a member of congress, in this great institution. And i know i felt that with the members of my staff throughout the years. Every chief of staff, every legislative director, every staff director and every other staff member that ive ever had. Fellows and interns stepped up to the plate and certainly i know helped me become a better representative to the people of the eighth district. All the things that we were able to accomplish, all of them happened because we had people who cared a little bit more about something bigger than themselves. They cared enough to sacrifice probably better careers with higher pay and shorter hours in the private sector. They chose to come to washington, d. C. , or work in the District Offices to plow through and represent really average americans to a big federal bureaucracy that sometimes seems so intimidating, they had nowhere else to go. They were the friends on the other side of those phone calls. Many of these folks have graciously showed up today. Ris cox and matt andy, andrew, ilen phillip, diane, kyle. Thanks, kyle, for not killing me on the highway, on the way to meet the turkish newly elected prime minister. I appreciate that a lot. Michael, darren. I think of my first crew that was right in the District Office fighting it out, tony and penny and katie and stewart, all of those folks who were so committed again to getting it right on behalf of the people that they represented. To my Campaign Team. By the way, there were so many more people. I could take the whole 60 minutes and thank them all. My Campaign Team who fought it all and beat every odd and beat every pundits prediction that i would never stand and walk these halls as a member of congress. Terry and val, r. J. , john, catherine, joe, mike. I want to thank someone who was special in all of that to me, somebody whos been with me 22 years. From the very high points, to. He very low points anne, couldnt have done it without you. Thanks for being here today. Wow. Aid i wasnt going to do this. I think of all the things that as a staff that you are able to accomplish. From cancer care legislation to protect rural patients, he medical devices for children, biodefenses, we even figured out a way to make serving farms more efficient. Without mandates. That was clever. To all the constituents that picked up the phone and found a friend at the other end, i think of the time we all gathered up to help keep a soup kitchen operating through the holidays by getting private donors to step up to people theyd never met or organizations they had never heard of, to help those folks get fed through the church kitchen. All the time we huddled all the staff in because we had one of those great successful, horribly painful i. R. S. Issues, where after years of trying to get this thing straightened out and certainly the anxiety and problems that are faced when dealing with a bureaucracy like the i. R. S. , we got to make that phone call and not only were they not going to have to owe money, the i. R. S. Had made a significant mistake and they were going to get a pretty good sizeble check back and ill tell you, there wasnt a dry eye in the room when we made that call as a staff together. From all the folks we helped with social security, the folks that got the medals they earned by serving this country. To see the room filled with individuals who teared up because its the first time they heard their loved one tell the story of how they earned those medals fighting for the defense of the United States of america. You know, its pretty fantastic thing that i got to be here system of the work that i did on the intelligence committee, i have to tell you, was some of the biggest and best privilege i have had the opportunity to participate in. Somebody asked me at the time, why did you go from being an f. B. I. Agent to wanting to serb and go through that political process that we all do . And i recall the story, as a fairly young agent, we were working a case, trying to locate a young girl who had gone missing from a western state, had come to chicago, i was on the organized crime squad. We had a tip that would hopefully lead to this girls return to her parents and they were very concerned. She was young at the time, 15. When she left home. The long city story, the fast forward of that story, we were able to find this young lady, operating in a house of ill repute that was run and really protected by the local police, run by chicago organized crime. And the proprietors of this particular establishment kept all of the ladies completely hooked on heroin. Gather them up at the end of the night, take home to a building that they owned and they would really lock them up, feed them heroin, get them back the next day for their nights work. When we took this young lady out, she was probably 17 by the time we found, located, started to disrupt these type of activities. Ill never forget we got her into the car, we had arranged counseling, there was a great agent, a senior tonight me, richard davis, always very valuable to me. She was coming out, she didnt have a coat. So he expropriated the money i had in my wallet to find an opportunity to get her a coat, which we did. And in the back of the car she was immensely quiet. She didnt say a word. Again, our goal was to get her to some counseling and try to get her life back on track any way we could. And out of the blue, it was very quiet in the car so it was very cutting when she talked. She turned her head and the only words she spoke she dade, do you know why i didnt kill myself . Because i knew somebody cared enough to come find me. That certainly mode a profound impact on me, both as a young f. B. I. Agent and the work i was doing there, but what i had tried to accomplish here as a member of congress. To know that somebody is empowered to ask the hard questions, to go to the tough laces. I believed and the people around me believed it was porn for the security of the country, or keeping Cancer Patients from driving hours and hours, or maybe we came up with that bill, and did if the protection of biodefense in the United States. One of my greatest privileges is having that ability to stand with the men and women as chairman of the house intelligence committee, with these folks who served all over the world in the Intelligence Community, the defense community. I never forgot that story of that young lady and what it meant. And i always pledged to myself that if i was ever in position to be in authority, to make that little bit of a difference, maybe ask that other question, push or probe a little bit more or push a bill, that i would do that. And i think together, the staff, family, and friends, we have accomplished that. So congratulations to you and all the work that youve done as well. As i had that opportunity to stand around the world with some really brave and courageous individuals, both in our military and intelligence communities, i just have two people that i need to point out. I want them to know of what the profound impact they had on me, as a member of the house select and tee on intelligence, certainly their country, and the work that i hope i took in to the role of chairman. The the rock star of c. I. A. , thank you. For standing up for your country in the shadows. For your leadership. For doing, i think, the countrys hardest work. Youve never complained, you sought no recognition, but in those shadows you stood up at the right time to push the right policy that i believe has fundamentally made america safe. They never get to know your name but ill know it. To karzais favorite, thanks for having the courage to take me where you werent su