Of the house of representatives. Pursuant to the order of the house january 3, 2013, the chair for now recognize members morning our debate. The chair will alternate recognition between the parties with each party having one hour. With majority and minority Leaders Limited to five minutes each. Note debate should continue beyond 11 50 a. M. The chair recognizes the german from oregon the gentleman from oregon for five minutes. Unfair and often counterproductive. Invites tax engineering and is hugely expensive for those just trying to meet their obligations. Invasions we and lose billions of dollars of. Evenue that should be and providing for our families. While we may disagree with some fundamentals, it would be a mistake to begin with our area of disagreement. I commend the chairman for working to build common understanding on a path forward. But there is one area that has not been part of the tax reform discussion but is every bit as critical at solving our budget deficit. Thats to deal with our infrastructure deficit. Every day brings more stories of a nation slowly falling apart and falling behind other nations that are modernizing their infrastructure, like japan, china, india, the european union, all of whom spend more money on their economy than does the United States. Last weeks potential water emergency in Prince Georges County underscores a point made by my friend, representative don young from alaska. We leak more water than we drink. 1. 9 trillion gallons of water lost due to inadequate infrastructure underground. Its water, sewer, the electrical grid, transit, roads and bridges. The American Society of Civil Engineers estimated we need to spend 1. 3 trillion in the next five years just to maintain basic standards. Transportation reauthorization is under the committees jurisdiction and its fast approaching. With a Highway Trust Fund unable to meet even current inadequate requirements. This resource gap prevented us from being able to enact a full sixyear reauthorization last congress. Hence were facing it again next year. In the 20 years since the gas tax was last increased, the purchasing power of the fund has eroded dramatically due to inflation and increased fuel economy. So the average motorist is paying half as much per mile than they did in 1993. The failure to meet the revenue needs required has increased borrowing from the general fund, adding 55 billion to the deficit just to meet the current inadequate levels. At the same time weve seen a collapse in the Construction Industry costing hundreds of thousands of family wage jobs and slowing our economic recovery. Resources had become increasingly inadequate to meet basic Transportation Needs but at the same time the consensus among key road users in support of an increase has grown ever stronger. A vast coalition has emerged in support of raising the fuel tax, includes business, the professions, organized labor, nongovernmental organizations, the truckers, transit, cyclists, the list of supporters is as long as it is varied. Allowing an inflationary increase for the Highway Trust Fund was part of the clinton deficit Reduction Plan back when we had balanced budgets. More recently, it was included in the recommendation of the chairs of the president s deficit reduction committee, Allen Simpson andwles, making i part of the proposal will meet a growing need of our economy. It will help satisfy the concerns of those insisting on more revenue but do so in a manner thats supported by a broad, diverse and indeed powerful coalition of interests. We all have a stake in funding to rebuild and renew america. Its not just the quickest way to put people back to work but also make our communities more livable, our families safer, healthier and more economically secure and it just might be the smoothest path to tax reform as ell. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The chair recognizes the gentleman from virginia, mr. Wolf, for five minutes. Mr. Wolf thank you, mr. Speaker. Mr. Speaker, with only six legislative days left before the congress departs for august recess, im increasingly concern we will not learn the answers to any of the questions i have raised over the past week before the oneyear anniversary of the attack on benghazi, if ever. This is due in large part to the secretive nature of the investigations to date. Most of the key hearings on what happened that night in benghazi have happened behind closed doors in classified settings, including a june hearing with general carter hamm. That is why i was surprised to hear comments made by general hamm at the Aspen Security Forum where he spoke freely about the u. S. Response about the attack. Does it bother any of my colleagues that general hamm can publicly speak about the militarys response at a forum in aspen, colorado, where the tickets, the tickets were 1,200 . The American People should not have to pay 1,200. Yet, his testimony was behind closed doors. According to a cnn report, by the time an american drone arrived before the u. S. Consulate the attack on the mission was winding down. By that time he knew ambassador stevens was missing and believe he could have been possibly kidnapped. He was quoted, in my mind we were no longer in response to an attack. We were in a recovery. And frankly i thought we were in a potential hostage rescue situation. The article continued, quote, hamm said although he had authority to scramble to the scene he decided, quote, there was not necessity and not a clear purpose in doing so. To do what, hamm asked, it was a very, very, very uncertain situation, he said. It was a very uncertain situation indeed. Uncertain as to whether the terrorists held our ambassador as hostage, uncertain as to whether the terrorists would target the annex, as they did, uncertain as to whether this situation would last hours, days, weeks or months or years. It raises the questions, if command required no Additional Authority to respond, what he then believed to be a hostagerescue situation, why did it take another seven hours before africomm ordered a c17 to deploy to libya to evacuate americans . And why did that plane not leave germany for another eight hours after that . If the situation appeared to be deteriorating, why wasnt there an effort to accelerate air support or planes to evacuate american personnel directly from benghazi . Nd given the betrayal of our allied allies, why wasnt the pentagon moving faster for a hostage response in benghazi . And given that no american plane arrived in benghazi to support the evacuation, just what planes were used to evacuate the americans on the morning of september 12 . The state departments review board said two planes were used evacuate from benghazi to tripoli. And one transported the four bodies but the first to depart was a private chartered jet that took off at 7 40 a. M. With evacuees, including all wounded personnel, according to an unclassified version of the report. Just who owned that jet . Was it the same jet that brought in the sevenperson Response Team from tripoli earlier that night . Was it either chartered or common deered . How many wounded were evacuated on that jet . Of the wounded how many were state department employees, c. I. A. Employees or security contractors . When the first plane arrived in tripoli, wounded personnel were transferred to a local hospital in coordination that helped save the lives of two severely injured americans. Despite my letter i sent to secretary kerry, i have never received a full accounting of how Many Americans were injured in the attack. Are any of the wounded still receiving care in military hospitals or other medical facilities . Will we ever officially learn their names and they were heroes, the heroic action that night that resulted in their serious injuries . I think we can all agree it would be constructive for those that were in the chain of command that night to publicly testify and answer these questions. The American People are losing confidence in their government. How will history judge the actions or inaction of the Obama Administration and the response of the congress to the benghazi attack . The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The chair recognizes the gentleman from virginia, mr. Onnolly, for five minutes. Mr. Connolly mr. Speaker, c. B. O. s may report shows the deficit has dropped another 220 billion. The federal deficit continues to fall faster now than it has since postworld war ii demobilization in the late 1940s and early 1950s. O. M. B. Released the mid session review saying deficits will be reduced below 3 of g. D. P. By fall by ontinue to 2023. This recent good news hasnt delimb nated the need to address our longterm fiscal crisis but it has created some breathing space for us to renew our investments in america. Were now five years removed from the financial crisis and have yet to demonstrated an ability to balance competing needs between the longterm deficit reduction need and investments in the future that made america great. House republicans have been obsessed by the debt but struggle to recognize any need for investment in education, r d and infrastructure. A few weeks ago Larry Sommers said just as you burden future generations when you accumulate debt you also burden future generations when you defer maintenance. Given the current market, were refusing to maintain our infrastructure at a time when investors are literally throwing money at us. To be clear, yields on the five, seven and 10year treasuries have been negative for the past two years. Negative. This past month weve witnessed a rate jump as markets fret bout qe3 yet yield treasuries remain below 3 . Rates have not been this low for many, many decades. Republicans look the other way when it comes to this question and im shocked that my colleagues who persistently say we ought to run the government like a business have little interest of taking advantage of one of our generations great opportunities of investing in the future. This is a far cry from the party of lincoln that invested in the homestead act, invested in the Transcontinental Railroad or eisenhower who invested in the interstate highway system. Unfortunately, Congress Continues to fiddle while rome burns. Two months ago the i5 bridge collapsed in the state of washington. It was a miracle nobody died considering that 71,000 vehicles a day use that critical connection. The main route connecting seattle to british columbia, according to the u. S. Highway federal Administration Virginia has one in four bridges that are either structurally deficient or functionally obsolete and we are not unique in america. Water main pipes are more than 100 years ago. American society of Civil Engineers estimate it is will take 298 billion over the next 20 years to fix the situation. Otherwise, Many Americans are going to get waste water when they turn on their faucets. More residents of the National Capital reasonableon learned this the hard way when because of lack of infrastructure, infrastructure maintenance, they almost went without water. Our choice is not to invest in maintaining the Critical Infrastructure in the backbone f our economy as putting america at a competitive disadvantage in the next century. The canal will be its expansion will be completed in 2015, radically caltering global trade capacity. Yet the east coast will have only four ports capable of receiving the new post panamax ships. The u. S. Army core corps of engineer reports these new ships will make up 62 in the world by 2030. Right now china and korea not only surpass the United States in this capacity, they lead in terms of container traffic as well. This didnt happen by accident. They invested. Mr. Speaker, theres no doubt that leaving our grandchildren with unsustainable debt is irresponsible. But what are they to think when they look back and realize we left them with a nation of potholes, contaminated water, and crumbling bridges. Our global competitors arent waiting around for things to pick up here in america. They are actively investing in infrastructure to gain ground in the hoping of overtaking us in global competition. The chinese spent billions in ports, rail, and highways. They are not alone. Its time to turn our attention back to the seemingly unglamorous but critical business of fixing americas infrastructure. Our roads, our ports, our airports, our bridges, and our to ensure in few tear generations america stays strong. I yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentlemans time has expired. The chair recognizes the gentleman from illinois, mr. Kinzinger, for five minutes. Mr. Kinzinger thank you, mr. Speaker. This is a very important issue that unfortunately hasnt gotten as much attention lately as it should. Im a veteran of iraq and afghanistan, spent most of my time in iraq, but i remember i was in a nation outside of afghanistan getting ready to fly an airplane one day, this was back in the mid 2000s, mr. Speaker, the majority leader from the other chamber basically got on television and said, the war in iraq is lost. He said its lost. Its done. Its over. I remember that. Because i was on a treadmill getting ready to go fly a mission into afghanistan when i heard that. The interesting thing about that is i guarantee you our enemy in iraq probably cheered loudly at the moment they saw the majority leader from the senate say those words. We know that something very courageous happened, the president of the United States at the time said, not only is the war not lost, we are sending more troops and we are going to win this thing and we did. We saw the enemy realize that america could never be defeated on the battlefield. It could only be defeated by its will. And president bush sent a strong and loud message that americas will will not be defeated. This is a situation we face in afghanistan today. As a member of congress, as a politician, the easiest thing for me to do is to stand up here and say the war in afghanistan is lost and we need to just go home. I tell you you look at the polling, and with the lack of a president leading this country on the Public Opinion side of what we are doing in afghanistan, i probably get a lot of people sending Facebook Messages and emails saying, go get them. Its time to leave afghanistan. But you know what . If i did that, i wouldnt be able to look at myself in the mirror and say i did the right thing. Is, se the right thing generations of people that have lived under oppression and have lived for years under the taliban regime, they stood up, they kicked the taliban out of their nation, and they looked at the United States and said, it took you decades at your inception to get your democracy right, help us get our democracy right. Whats at stake here. I see a ver here and couple things. A girl by the name of bebe, you would see she does not have a nose or ears. At 15 ut out years old she left her abusive usband an eventually she was captured and apprehend herseth sandlinned by the taliban as they forced her family to cut her nose and ears off. We are running away from a terrible situation. She officially escaped and went to an American Forward Operating picture as she lived in the United States, she has a prosthetic nose today and is living as close to a normal life as possible despite the trauma she suffered. On the bottom down here youll see a number of girls in school right now. Learning and being educated. Before we were went into afghanistan there, was Something Like 800,000 people in school. Today its over six million. Did you know that 60 of the afghan population is under the age of 20 . And there is this movement in afghanistan called the Civil Society in which they stand up and say, its time for freedom and its time to take our country back. Are you also aware, mr. Speaker, that every province is now under control of afghanistan and the United States has everted to a Training Mission and Counterterrorism Mission . These are all huge victories for the Afghan People we ought to be celebrating but instead i wake up the other day and look in the paper and the president of the United States, the leader of the free world, is tion after 2014 to take all troops out of afghanistan. Let me ask you a question, do you think that made the taliban frightened . Or do you think they cheered when they saw the president of the United States say, im considering all troops gone after 2014 . The whole year of 2014 was pulled out of the hat for political reasons. When you say that we are surging in afghanistan but as the last troop goes in the first troops coming out from the surge, its not very effective. You know the taliban has a saying, actually. It says america may have the watches, but we have the time. Ladies and gentlemen, mr. Speaker, we are on the verge of a clear victory in afghanistan for the Afghan People. The biggest mistake we can make today is to let politics come into play and to withdraw and leave zero troops after 2014. In 50 years history will judge us for that. Mr. Speaker, i yield back. The speaker pro tempore the gentleman yields back. The chair recognizes the the gentlewoman from ohio, ms. Kaptur, for five minutes. Ms. Kaptur thank you. Mr. Speaker, in 1999 congress sadly repealed the glasssteagall act. That law, which had protected our nation for over seven decades against wild speculation by wall street, investment houses, and financial giants. When the floodgates were removed betwee