Henry Cuellar

Mr. CUELLAR

Mr. CUELLAR. I now yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, I'm pleased to present S. 3592, legislation that designates the United States Postal Service facility located at 100 Commerce Drive, Tyrone, Georgia, as the First Lieutenant Robert Wilson Collins Post Office Building. Introduced by Senator Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, S. 3592 passed the Senate unanimously yesterday, December 16, 2010. Mr. Speaker, First Lieutenant Robert Wilson Collins was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 64th Armor Regiment, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, out of Fort Stewart, Georgia. A class of 2008 graduate of West Point, Lieutenant Collins deployed in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom in the fall of 2009 and served as a platoon leader while his unit provided support during the national elections in Iraq. Understanding the importance of maintaining the morale of the unit's soldiers and keeping them connected to family and friends at home, Lieutenant Collins maintained a Facebook page for the unit, allowing the unit to share photos and messages with loved ones. Sadly, on April 7, 2010, Lieutenant Collins was killed when enemy forces attacked his vehicle with an improvised explosive device in Mosul, Iraq. He was 24 years of age. Lieutenant Collins is survived by his parents, Retired Lieutenant Colonels Deacon and Sharon Collins, and Nicolle, his childhood sweetheart and girlfriend of 8 years. Mr. Speaker, let us pay tribute to the life and service of First Lieutenant Robert Wilson Collins by designating this postal facility on Commerce Drive in Tyrone, Georgia, his home town. I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting Senate bill 3592, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I again urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this measure, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I object to the vote on the ground that a quorum is not present and make the point of order that a quorum is not present.

Mr. CUELLAR

Mr. CUELLAR. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Committee on Government Oversight and Reform, I am pleased to present H. Res. 1621, a resolution recognizing the 100th anniversary of the historic founding of Catholic Charities USA, introduced by our colleague, the gentleman from New Jersey, Representative Rush Holt, on September 15, 2010. The measure enjoys the support of over 70 cosponsors. Mr. Speaker, Catholic Charities was founded in 1910 here in Washington, DC on the campus of Catholic University of America as the National Conference of Catholic Charities. It was created to promote the creation of Catholic Charities across the country, encourage professional social work practice, to bring solidarity to those in charitable ministries and to advocate for the poor. Today, Catholic Charities serves over 9 million people of all faiths and backgrounds each year. They provide training and technical assistance to member organizations, assist in disaster relief operations, and maintain a range of networks with groups committed to social justice. Mr. Speaker, let us therefore congratulate the historic founding of the organization through the passage of H. Res. 1621. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I ask Members to support the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, first of all I want to say I am returning back to Congress. I want to just put that on the record. So I do look forward to working with Mr. Holt and Mr. Issa and other Members. Again, as this might be the last oversight bill that we have, again I want to thank the Democrat staff, Chairman Towns, the ranking member and his staff also for working with us, because I think this committee has done a lot of good work, and I appreciate the work they have done, all of us working together in a bipartisan way. At this time I will ask Members to support this resolution.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1621) recognizing the 100th anniversary of the historic founding of Catholic Charities USA.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, at this time I yield such time as he may consume to the sponsor of the bill, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Holt).

Mr. CUELLAR

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Snyder).

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, again I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this measure, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CUELLAR. I now yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, on behalf of the Committee on Oversight Government Reform, I am pleased to present House Resolution 1733, a resolution recognizing Mark Twain as one of America's most famous literary icons on the 175th anniversary of his birth and the 100th anniversary of his death. House Resolution 1733 was introduced by our colleague, the gentleman from Arkansas, Representative Vic Snyder, on November 18, 2010. This measure enjoys the support of over 60 Members of the House. Mr. Speaker, Mark Twain was born as Samuel Langhorne Clemens in the town of Florida, Missouri, on November 30, 1835. Famously, he was born 2 weeks after the closest approach to Earth of Halley's Comet, which made its next approach 1 day after his death in 1910. At the age of 4, Twain moved to Hannibal, Missouri, a Mississippi River town that would inspire some of his most beloved works. At age 12, he became a printer's apprentice; and at age 16, he began working as a typesetter and contributor of articles and humorous sketches for the Hannibal Journal, a newspaper owned by his brother Orion. At age 18, he worked briefly as a printer in New York City, Philadelphia, St. Louis, Cincinnati, taking time to educate himself at public libraries in the evenings. After returning to Missouri at age 22, he was inspired to be a steamboat pilot, earning significant income, learning intimate details of the river, and where he was inspired to give himself his pen name Mark Twain, which refers to the depth of two fathoms, or 12 feet, the right depth for safe passage of a riverboat. He worked on riverboats until 1861, when the Civil War stopped traffic along the Mississippi River. He then traveled west, working as a miner and for newspapers in various towns. His first success as a writer came when his humorous short story, ``The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County,'' was published in a New York weekly, The Saturday Press, on November 18, 1865. This launched his renown as a writer, bringing attention across the country. After traveling to Europe and the Middle East on assignment from a local newspaper, he moved with his family to Buffalo, New York, and then to Hartford, Connecticut. It was in Hartford that Twain wrote his most famous works, ``The Adventures of Tom Sawyer,'' ``The Prince and the Pauper,'' ``Life on the Mississippi,'' ``Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,'' and ``A Connecticut Yankee in King Arthur's Court.'' He gave lectures around the world, patented three inventions, and developed a lasting friendship with one of history's most famous scientists and inventors, Nikola Tesla. Twain died at age 74 on April 21, 1910, a year after making his famous prediction: ``I came in with Halley's Comet in 1835. It is coming again next year, and I expect to go out with it. It will be the greatest disappointment of my life if I don't go out with Halley's Comet. The Almighty has said, no doubt: `Now here are these two unaccountable freaks; they came in together, they must go out together.' '' William Faulkner called Mark Twain ``the father of American literature,'' and he is rightly remembered as such. We can also remember and honor him for his advocacy on behalf of emancipation and women's suffrage. In closing, no study of American literature is complete without the works of Mark Twain. Mr. Speaker, let us, therefore, honor this giant of American literature on the 100th anniversary of his death through the passage of House Resolution 1733. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting it, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 1733) recognizing Mark Twain as one of America's most famous literary icons on the 175th anniversary of his birth and the 100th anniversary of his death, as amended.

Mr. CUELLAR

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur in the Senate amendment to the bill (H.R. 2142) to require the review of Government programs at least once every 5 years for purposes of assessing their performance and improving their operations, and to establish the Performance Improvement Council.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. First of all, I want to thank Government Oversight Committee Chairman Ed Towns and Ranking Member Issa. We worked on this legislation together to address a bill that I believe will be important for the Congress to strengthen its oversight over the executive branch. If we don't pass this, Congress will not be in a strong position to provide legislative oversight. I think everybody agrees that every Member of Congress should do everything to stop unnecessary and wasteful spending. In order to eliminate Federal Government waste, we must know which Federal agencies and programs are working and which are not. We need to examine data of performance efficiency at Federal agencies in order to make responsible budgetary decisions. We need the Senate amendment to H.R. 2142, the Government Performance Results Modernization Act of 2010. The concept is not complicated. We can cut down on the debt by cutting down on waste. With greater government efficiency, we can produce cost savings for every American taxpayer. This bill will shine light on ineffective Federal programs to root out wasteful spending. Federal agencies are supposed to clearly identify ambitious, high-priority goals and assess their performance and effectiveness to evaluate its direct impact on the American people and the government. This will provide the needed information to make informed budgetary decisions. It also eliminates duplicative, outdated, and unused reporting. In the first year, all old-fashioned, ineffective reporting will be eliminated by 10 percent. And we will continue to streamline across the board. It requires OMB and agencies to submit recommendations to Congress about how to improve the reporting process. This eliminates stacks of unused performance reports that nobody reads or uses at this time. It also heightens transparency to generate government credibility. The information generated will be easily accessible and made publicly available to Congress and the American people. It also increases government accountability. Federal agencies are held accountable by requiring all agencies to conduct quarterly performance reports on how effectively they are working to meet their goals and to make sure that there is government accountability, and, therefore, we have government accountability. This will lead to government credibility also. It elevates the role of agencies to bring accountability. Instead of paper-pushing across government, the deputy secretary or chief operating officer is held accountable for the effectiveness and success of the agency. This puts a face and a name to performance of agencies and programs. It creates a mechanism to penalize agencies that fail to meet goals. This was an amendment that Senator Coburn added over there on the Senate side, and on the Senate side we worked with Senator Mark Warner, and so I want to thank him, Joe Lieberman, and Senator Akaka. But we worked closely with Senator Collins, Senator Voinovich, and Senator Coburn, who added an amendment, the amendment that creates this mechanism to penalize agencies that don't meet its goals. And we at the last minute spoke to Senator Jeff Sessions about this particular bill, and this bill got the support. As you know, it was UC'd. It passed unanimously in the Senate yesterday with the input of our Republican colleagues on the Senate side. The amendment that Senator Coburn added creates a mechanism to penalize agencies that fail to meet goals. Which means, if an agency program has not met its performance goals for a fiscal year, this bill will require action, and this will ensure the goals are met and actively pursued throughout the year. The bottom line is, this will allow us to provide legislative oversight over the executive branch. Whether it is a Democratic or a Republican President, this is something we need to do. The American taxpayers deserve a government that is transparent, efficient, and accountable, and I ask Members to support H.R. 2142. We do have Republican colleagues in the Congress here that, when we passed this bill unanimously from the House floor some months ago, we had Republicans that cosponsored this. So at this time, I would ask Members to support H.R. 2142. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to thank the ranking member, who will be the chairman of Government Oversight. I want to thank him and his staff, because we did work on this together. It went over to the Senate. We were trying to move it over here as quickly as possible. The Senators did make some changes, but the biggest change, I believe, was to reduce the cost. Because, you recall, it was an authorization of $150 million, got cut in half to $75 million, which means that the agencies will be absorbing this cost, so it won't cost any appropriations, number one. Number two, I believe one of the major amendments was Senator Coburn from Oklahoma, who basically put the teeth on requiring Congress and OMB to take action if an agency or a program doesn't meet those performance goals. So, again, I respectfully disagree with you on that. But I believe the amendments that Senator Coburn added are actually good, because it does add the teeth or the mechanism to enforce if an agency doesn't do its job by meeting those goals. I do want to thank again the ranking member and the chairman, also, and the staff on both sides, the Republican staff and our side. We worked on this bill, because this is a bill that Mr. Issa and I believe strongly in, and Todd Platts, also. So I want to say thank you for the work that we are doing. And hopefully we can work on other items. If not, we will be working together on this bill again. But I do want to say thank you for the work that Members on both sides of the aisle have done. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. CUELLAR. I again thank the ranking member. I urge all Members to support H.R. 2142, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CUELLAR

Mr. CUELLAR. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize the retirement of Alonzo R. Pena, Deputy Director of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which is the ICE, in the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. He has worked to make our communities safe through law enforcement for over two decades. Mr. Pena is a native of Falfurrias, Texas, where he began his career as a Texas State trooper. In 1984, he entered the Federal service as part of the ATF in California. After several years, he returned back to Texas and worked his way up to Assistant Director for the Smuggling Division. Mr. Pena also served as the ICE Special Agent-in-Charge in San Antonio, Houston, and Phoenix. He played a key role in the creation of the ICE's Border Enforcement Security Task Force (BEST) initiative, which developed a comprehensive approach to combat cross-border crime and which started there in my hometown of Laredo. Deputy Director Pena has led efforts to foster increased counternarcotics and law enforcement cooperation with Mexico as the State Department's senior diplomat to the Government of Mexico at the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City. As the current Deputy Director of ICE, Mr. Pena has assisted intelligence-driven investigations through the assistance of and relationships with Federal, State, local, and international partners. Madam Speaker, I am honored to recognize the unique dedication, commitment, and leadership of ICE Deputy Director Alonzo Pena, and his family.

Mr. CUELLAR

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Coast Guard Authorization Act of 2010, a bill to authorize the important activities and programs of the United States Coast Guard. This comprehensive legislation includes new and enhanced port security programs that will help the Coast Guard protect and defend our nation's seaports, coastlines and waterways. Since the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks, the Coast Guard has assumed additional security-related responsibilities and has improved its port and maritime border security and readiness capabilities. Accordingly, the bill includes a strong port security title that builds upon the Coast Guard's current initiatives to safeguard the public and protect vessels, harbors, ports, facilities, and cargo within the jurisdiction of the United States. For example, the bill's expansion of rapidly deployable specialized forces will enhance the Coast Guard's current ability to respond and operate effectively in a hazardous threat environment. The bill also directs the Coast Guard to lead the effort to enforce security zones around vessels carrying certain hazardous cargos, such as liquefied natural gas, as well as to increase the number of detection canine teams responsible for maritime-related security. As the Chair of the Subcommittee on Border, Maritime, and Global Counterterrorism, I am particularly pleased that this legislation includes strong provisions to protect our nation's maritime border. The bill authorizes the America's Waterway Watch Program--a ``see it, say it'' maritime domain awareness program that encourages the reporting of suspicious activities on and around our waterways to the Coast Guard. Additionally, it authorizes the Mobile Biometric Identification Program, a program that will enhance border security by providing the Coast Guard with state-of-the-art biometric technology to help identify individuals interdicted at sea. The bill will require the Coast Guard to develop a comprehensive strategy to combat the illicit flow of narcotics, weapons, bulk cash and other contraband through the use of submersible and semi- submersible vessels. Drug trafficking organizations are constructing these vessels for the purpose of bringing narcotics from South America to the United States, and their efforts are becoming increasingly sophisticated. Even more troubling is the thought that such vessels could be used to smuggle terrorists or their weapons into our country. The Coast Guard's development of a comprehensive strategy to detect and interdict these vessels will be a key component of our effort to defeat these drug trafficking organizations. Our Nation demands more from the Coast Guard now than at any other time in the Service's over 200-year history. During these challenging times, it is critical that we ensure that the Coast Guard has the resources necessary to fulfill its homeland security mission requirements. Passage of H.R. 3619 will provide the Coast Guard with the long-term tools that are needed in this post-9/11 world. Therefore, I urge my colleagues to join me in giving this important resolution their full support.

Mr. CUELLAR

Mr. CUELLAR. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. This Senate amendment is an amendment that just adds accountability to the grant dollars, and I think it is important, just as the gentleman from Georgia. And I certainly want to thank my friend from Georgia, because we understand, just as Mr. Rogers, also, that we have got to make sure that we provide accountability. We are talking about $4 billion a year. We just have got to have accountability. I urge all my colleagues to support this measure.

Mr. CUELLAR. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. CUELLAR. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur in the Senate amendment to the bill (H.R. 3980) to provide for identifying and eliminating redundant reporting requirements and developing meaningful performance metrics for homeland security preparedness grants, and for other purposes.