Michael Arcuri

Mr. ARCURI

Mr. ARCURI. Madam Speaker, I would like to thank Chairman Oberstar, Chairwoman Brown, and Ranking Members Mica and Shuster for their bipartisan leadership on the Amtrak legislation we will consider today, and as they showed yesterday in the Rules Committee, for their passionate advocacy on behalf of this great bill. There has been much discussion about the condition of our Nation's transportation system and the growing pressures it faces from all sides: skyrocketing costs of fuel and maintenance; increased congestion from growing demand; and global climate change. H.R. 6003 will take tremendous strides toward addressing these pressures by continuing our commitment to Amtrak and passenger rail service. Maintenance costs will continue to hinder us, but expanding and improving passenger rail service has the potential to relieve congestion both on our highways and in the skies by offering passengers a viable alternative. A shift toward rail can reduce the harmful CO2 emissions generated by the transportation system. For too long Amtrak has been the symbol of partisan politics in Washington. If we are to have a robust and successful system that users can rely on, then we must make a bipartisan commitment to supporting Amtrak. We cannot waiver on this commitment and expect to keep pace with the national rail systems of other developed countries around the world. Partisan bickering has hurt Amtrak's overall state of repair. In fact, the Department of Transportation's inspector general concluded that, ``Despite multiple efforts over the years to change Amtrak's structure and funding, we have a system that limps along, is never in a state of good repair, awash in debt, and perpetually on the edge of collapse.'' That must change. Amtrak's maintenance backlog is a major impediment to its success. In recent years, Amtrak's ridership has grown at a modest but continuing rate, and Amtrak's on-time performance has declined down to an on-time arrival rate of 67.8 percent. The Department of Transportation's inspector general has stated that Amtrak's continued deferral of maintenance increases the risk of a major failure on its system. Currently, Amtrak has an estimated $6 billion in backlogged capital maintenance needs, including $4 billion on the Northeast Corridor, its most profitable line. I would gladly take the train home to my Upstate New York district, or from my home in Utica to New York City, but currently that is not a viable option because of the minimal Amtrak service. And even when there is service available, it is unreliable. Deferred track maintenance, especially in Upstate New York, has required lowering the speed limits on significant portions of the track. In addition, competition with freight carriers for priority on tracks causes Amtrak trains to become seriously delayed, to the point where train schedules are simply unreliable. The on-time arrival rate between Albany and Buffalo is a mere 42 percent, meaning that less than half of the trains arrive on time. Unfortunately, for hardworking Americans, passenger rail is the only option for travel because of record high fuel prices, making air and car travel less viable.

Mr. ARCURI. I thank you for the additional time. Improving passenger rail service must be part of our long-term transportation strategy if we expect to effectively decrease our Nation's reliance on finite fossil fuels, and allow Americans to get to and from work on time without breaking the bank each month. The Passenger Rail Investment and Improvement Act will aggressively address these concerns. I encourage my colleagues to vote for this rule and the underlying bill and continue to support the viable passenger rail option in our Nation.

Mr. ARCURI

Mr. ARCURI. I thank the gentleman for the history lesson and for the lesson on what drilling means. I really appreciate that. I know we don't have a lot of domestic oil in New York, but I appreciate having him tell me what drilling means. But when people in my district talk to me about what are we doing about gas, and we get those very same questions, I tell them that we have done some things. We have passed the Strategic Petroleum Reserve Fill Suspension Consumer Protection Act. I tell them we've passed the Renewable Energy and Job Creation Act. I tell them we've passed the OPEC and big oil companies accountability bill. I tell them we've passed the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007. I tell them we've passed the Renewable Energy and Energy Conservation Tax Act. I tell them we've passed the Energy Price Gouging Prevention Act. I tell them we've passed the No Oil Producing and Exporting Cartels Act. I tell them we've passed the Energy Market Manipulation Prevention Act. Mr. Speaker, America is tired of the same old rhetoric. They want new solutions. When I talk about geothermal projects that we have in our district, when I talk about cellulosic ethanol plants, when I talk about wood pellet plants, that is new strategies. Those are new philosophies. Those are the kind of strategies that we need in this country for real, long-term change in direction, the kind of direction that will make it easier for our children and our grandchildren to live and to function and not to be dependent on foreign oil. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ARCURI. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 1233 and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. ARCURI. Mr. Speaker, it is interesting that my colleague from North Carolina talks about inaction. And he would have the American people believe that inaction means not drilling. They are two distinctly different things. Just simply because I don't advocate drilling doesn't mean that I am not for alternative energy. We cannot drill our way to energy independence. It just doesn't make sense.

Mr. ARCURI. Mr. Speaker, for purposes of debate only, I yield the customary 30 minutes to the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Hastings). All time yielded during consideration of House Resolution 1233 is for debate only. General Leave

Mr. ARCURI. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and insert extraneous materials into the Record.

Mr. ARCURI. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, House Resolution 1233 provides a structured rule for consideration of H.R. 5540, the Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network Continuing Authorization Act. The resolution provides 1 hour of debate, controlled by the Committee on Natural Resources, and makes in order all amendments submitted to the Rules Committee for consideration. Mr. Speaker, let me begin by congratulating my freshman class colleague from Maryland (Mr. Sarbanes) for his leadership on behalf of the Chesapeake Bay. Mr. Sarbanes has worked diligently and tirelessly in a bipartisan fashion to transcend partisan politics and ensure the Chesapeake Bay remains a vibrant recreational and economic network for many years to come. Mr. Speaker, this rule and the legislation which it provides for consideration of will continue the important restoration and conservation of the Chesapeake Bay watershed by permanently authorizing the Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network. The Chesapeake Bay is our Nation's largest estuary. Many people often think of the Bay only as Maryland and Virginia, but the Bay's watershed covers 64,000 square miles in five States and the District of Columbia. In fact, the watershed's most northern part, or what we in upstate New York would call the starting point, extends into a significant portion of my congressional district and actually starts in Cooperstown, New York. As a result of its size and location, the Chesapeake Bay has played a role in the development of American history, from early settlement and commerce to military battles and transportation development, as well as recreational uses. It truly is worthy of preservation, both for its natural beauty and the impact on our Nation's cultural evolution. First established in 1998, the Chesapeake Bay Network is a comprehensive protection program for the Bay. The programs authorized serve to identify, conserve, restore and interpret the natural, historical, cultural and recreational resources within the watershed. These programs can also educate local communities on the significant sites in their region and how their community impacts the overall health of the Bay. The law requires the National Park Service to award grants to State and local agencies and nonprofit organizations with a full matching requirement for such projects. The resulting network is a system of over 150 parks, museums, historic communities, scenic roadways, watertrails and water access points located within the vast Chesapeake Bay watershed. Each of these sites tells a piece of a vast Chesapeake story while providing Federal support for the preservation and improvement of these sites, to enhance both the historical and recreational experience. The network is overseen by the National Park Service, but the Park Service only manages about 10 of the network's sites. Other gateways are managed by local, State and nongovernmental organizations. The Chesapeake Bay Network has always been a bipartisan program. The legislation that created it in 1998 passed the House on suspension by voice vote and was agreed to by unanimous consent in the Senate and signed into law by President Clinton. In 2002, a clean 5-year reauthorization received similar unanimous support in Congress and was signed into law by President Bush. The White House Conference on Cooperative Conservation headed by the Department of the Interior has called the network a success story. The legislation this rule provides for consideration of will permanently extend the authorization for this bipartisan program. It is worth noting that the National Park Service has also recommended permanent reauthorization of the network. I encourage all my colleagues to vote for this rule and the underlying bill and to continue to support the Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ARCURI. Yes, I will yield.

Mr. ARCURI. I thank my friend from Washington for his comments and just point out, Mr. Speaker, that on the one hand my colleague from Washington says that we are not allowing anyone to make any amendments, that we have closed the rule, and yet we have allowed every amendment in the Rules Committee that was offered including the one amendment from the gentleman from Utah. And then he criticizes in saying that we allow debate for 2 hours on this bill. You can't have it both ways. We have allowed debate on this bill, we have allowed for people to bring their amendments if that is what they choose to do and have an open Congress just the way we talked about. I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Hall).

Mr. ARCURI. I yield the gentleman 1 additional minute.

Mr. ARCURI. I'll reserve my time, Mr. Speaker.

Mr. ARCURI. Reclaiming my time, it is not about drilling. That is what some people in this House want to talk about. It is not. It is about developing alternative energy. In my district, we are developing cellulosic ethanol. In my district, we are developing geothermal power. We are heating schools, we are heating buildings, we are heating offices with geothermal. It is about developing alternative energy. It is not about drilling, drilling, drilling. Because in the end, what is going to happen is in 10 years or in 15 years we are going to defer this problem to our children. It is not something that we should just dump on their laps by just moving the problem to them. We can drill today, we can drill tomorrow. And then in 10 years and in 15 years our children and our grandchildren will have to deal with this. It is time to deal with it today. Mr. Speaker, it is time to deal with it today and to deal with it now, not to defer it to our children. That is not what a good parent does. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ARCURI. I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution.

Mr. ARCURI. Mr. Speaker, I don't think there is a person in America today that hasn't been affected either personally or through their business by the high cost of energy, by the high cost of gas. You know, we all go to the gas pumps. Just last weekend when I was home, I was pumping the gas, and you could see the look on people's faces as they watched the amount and as they went inside to pay the bill. And we all know, whether you're in New York or whether you're in the State of Washington or whether you're in Texas, no matter where you are here in this country, we all know and experience the same thing. However, the strategy of finger-pointing and blaming just will not get this country to where we need to be. We talk about here whose fault it is. We constantly have people pointing the finger. The fact of the matter is in 2002 when this President took over in the White House, the price of oil was $25 a barrel. Today it's nearly $130 a barrel. The cost of gas per gallon has tripled. We could point the finger. We could blame. We could do a lot of things. The fact of the matter is we cannot drill our way to energy independence. And people here would have you think that there is no drilling and there is no exploration going on in this country. Right now in my State, in fact, in my district, in the southern part of New York State, the northern part of Pennsylvania, there are huge amounts of exploration going on for natural gas. Huge natural gas fields there. They are looking for gas. They are searching for gas. They are finding it in this country. It is going on. The American people will have all of the energy that they need. However, if we are going to get to where we need to be as a country, we cannot depend on a finite resource. We can't depend on gas and oil. It will be gone. It will eventually deplete, and our children will be right where we are now paying double, triple, quadruple what we are paying now for energy. It is time to look toward alternative energy, and that's what we advocate; Not stopping drilling. No one wants to see us stop drilling or stop exploration. Just to be practical in terms of how we develop our alternative energy in the next step that we take. Mr. Speaker, allow me to bring us back here to the discussion, just for a moment, of the real reason that we're here today, and that is the reauthorization of the Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network. I think it's sad that this bill seems to have been trivialized today because this is a very important bill. This means a great deal to many people that live in the States that the Chesapeake Bay watershed is in but more importantly to this country. It is such an important part of our history and a critical part of our future. This is a program that did not have even a single Member of Congress oppose its creation or its subsequent reauthorization. Over a decade that the program has existed, it has been heralded as a success by the administration and Congress alike. The program was unanimously reauthorized by Congress 5 years ago. The legislation this rule provides for consideration would now permanently extend the authorization for this bipartisan program. And the National Park Service has recommended this permanent reauthorization of the network. Everyone agrees that the Chesapeake Bay Gateways and Watertrails Network is a good program. That's had a positive impact on the preservation and recreation within the Chesapeake Bay watershed. I would also like to point out, Mr. Speaker, that we on the Rules Committee have made every amendment on this legislation submitted by the Republican minority for consideration. This will allow for both a full debate and a vote on every item of legislation with which the Republican minority has issue. With that, Mr. Speaker, I urge a ``yes'' vote on the previous question and on the rule.

Mr. ARCURI. I have no further speakers.

Mr. ARCURI. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve.

Mr. ARCURI. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve.

Mr. ARCURI. Mr. Speaker, I continue to reserve.

Mr. ARCURI. We have no further speakers.

Mr. ARCURI

Mr. ARCURI. I thank my colleague from Vermont for yielding. I would like to also thank the chairman, Chairman Miller, and Subcommittee Chairman Kildee for this wonderful piece of legislation. Madam Chairman, I rise today in strong support of this amendment, which would allow schools to purchase and install renewable energy generation systems. Our amendment would allow schools to choose from a diverse selection of renewable energy sources. But I would like to specifically highlight two that pose significant potential: Geothermal and biomass wood pellet systems. Just last week during the Memorial Day District Work Period, I had an opportunity to tour the Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES in Auburn, New York, and received a firsthand look at a geothermal heating and cooling system in action. The Cayuga-Onondaga BOCES completed installation last July of a closed-loop geothermal system. The system includes 200 wells around the campus, 330 feet deep, that tap into the earth's constant ground temperature at a level of 55 degrees. The system circulates that 55- degree air temperature year round throughout the buildings on the campus. In the winter, the system relies on a boiler to slightly increase the air temperature on the campus to a comfortable level of 68 degrees, requiring substantially less energy than normal, and in the warm summer months, the system needs no additional energy whatsoever to cool the buildings on campus. The New York State Energy Research Development Authority recently conducted a study that found the system to be a remarkable 43 percent more energy efficient than a building built to standard code. While it might be too soon to qualify the actual monthly cost savings, I think it is safe to say that a building 43 percent more energy efficient will realize significant cost savings in the future and allow a school district to spend resources where they are most needed, on better educating our students, hiring more teachers, and to fund underfunded programs like the IDEA. The second component of this amendment I wish to highlight is wood pellet energy. Wood has the potential to meet our Nation's energy needs in a safe and environmentally responsible way. Studies show that commodities can save significant taxpayer funds by switching to wood energy for heating schools. For example, communities can save as much as 50 percent over natural gas, 80 percent over propane, 80 percent over electric heat and 50 percent over oil by switching to wood energy. Especially in the upstate New York district that I represent, with its bountiful forest resources, wood energy such as biomass offers an array of economic environmental benefits compared to traditional fossil fuels. Both geothermal and wood energy systems can be fueled by renewable local resources. This keeps energy dollars circulating in the local and regional economy, instead of flowing to other nations. These systems also aid local budgets by providing lower and more stable fuel costs for our schools. Investments like this benefit the whole community by relieving pressure on local budgets and associated tax rates, leading to healthier communities. Unlike some other renewable energy systems, both geothermal and biomass systems can run continuously and provide a constant level of power throughout the day. Beyond the amendment my colleagues and I are offering today, it is also worth noting the overall benefits of the underlying legislation. Everyone in this Chamber, Republican and Democrat, understands the importance of lowering energy prices. The 21st Century Green High-Performing Public School Facilities Act represents a trifecta of sound public policy. It improves the education system for our children, it does so in an environmentally friendly way that decreases our dependence on finite fossil fuels, and it creates jobs for hardworking middle class families. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment and the underlying legislation.

Mr. ARCURI

Mr. ARCURI. I thank my friend and colleague from California for yielding time to me. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support today of this rule, the fiscal year 2009 Defense Authorization Act, which this year is appropriately named after the distinguished Republican ranking member, Mr. Hunter. I commend Chairman Skelton and the entire House Armed Services Committee for their ability to work in a strong bipartisan fashion to produce a defense authorization bill that will enhance our Nation's security by providing our troops with superior equipment, and improve the quality of life for our servicemembers and their families by providing a 3.9 percent pay raise for all servicemembers, and require the administration to provide the American people with more transparency and accountability regarding the funding of the war in Iraq and Afghanistan. When it comes down to it, maintaining a strong national defense and providing for our troops should never be a partisan issue. We can disagree regarding specific provisions and proposals on occasion, but the fact remains that the American people want bipartisan solutions from Republicans and Democrats. That moves our Nation forward, and that is exactly what this rule and the underlying defense authorization will do. In closing, Mr. Speaker, I would just like to urge my colleagues to resist the temptation to point fingers and be partisan on this issue with the farm bill. We need to work in a bipartisan way, because this is what is important to America's farmers, and very, very important to America. By passing this rule and the defense authorization bill today, we can prove to the American people that bipartisanship still exists inside the walls of Congress.

Mr. ARCURI

Mr. ARCURI. Madam Speaker, I rise today to proudly congratulate the Hamilton College women's lacrosse team on winning this year's NCAA Division III Championship. I commend the Hamilton Continentals on their remarkable 21-1 performance this season and on setting a NCAA program record for the year. The Continentals achieved a stunning 19-game straight victory leading into the playoffs, and this year marks the first time that the team has advanced to the national semi-finals in its playoff history. This team has proven that a strong will and never looking back will take you far, as it encountered and beat both the number-one ranked team and the defending champions en route to their 13-6 victory in the final. The Hamilton Continentals are a shining example of what hard work and commitment can produce, and I am delighted to represent such an inspirational group of young athletes in Congress. The sacrifices and contributions of the entire team and their head coach merit true recognition. The Continentals have brought pride and honor to our community as well as their loved ones and the students and alumni of Hamilton College. Madam Speaker, I deeply congratulate the Hamilton College women's lacrosse team on this great accomplishment, and I wish them luck and success in their future endeavors.

Mr. ARCURI

Mr. ARCURI. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff).

Mr. ARCURI. I yield the gentleman 1 additional minute.