Mike Coffman

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08. Today, it is $19,481,571,141,221.67. We've added $8,854,694,092,308.59 to our debt in 6 years. This is over $7.5 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize September as Intergeneration Month. This month reminds us that bringing various generations together creates two key elements to a successful society: understanding and cooperation. Beginning with Grandparents Day, Intergeneration month reminds us to work together across generations and recognize the unique challenges and perspectives each individual generation brings. Some of these proceedings include opportunities to give gifts, send cards, or even scrapbook. Each event aims to stimulate engaging conversations between our generations in an effort to bridge generational divides. Interaction amongst generations makes us all better people and ultimately makes us a better society. I encourage all Americans to set aside time this month to embrace the rich diversity that Intergeneration Month can offer us. I would also like to extend my sincere congratulations to the Intergeneration Month organization for its commitment to connecting people across generations, and look forward to celebrating Intergeneration Month this September.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the 4th Annual Taste of Ethiopia held on August 6, 2016. The Taste of Ethiopia is a celebration as well as a cultural immersion to showcase music, food, art, crafts, culture, fashion show, and Ethiopian dance. It allows visitors a taste of Ethiopia without ever having to leaving Colorado, and also serves to bring all Ethiopians together. It is a celebration that combines fun and education. I am proud that the 6th District of Colorado is home to the largest Ethiopian community in the state of Colorado, and I am honored to have worked with members of this community on my staff. The Ethiopian community not only offers a beautiful and vibrant culture, but their dedication to hard work, family, and education, are also attributes that can be admired by all. The achievements of the Ethiopian community are highly visible in my Congressional District. I look forward to taking part in the festivities again this year with my esteemed constituents. I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to Taste of Ethiopia and its entire staff for their hard work these past four years.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Grant Baker, Benjamin Giles, Dylan Rogers, and Courtney Thompson for their hard work and dedication to the people of Colorado's Sixth District as interns in my Washington, D.C. office for the summer of the 114th Congress, Second Session. The work of these young men and women has been exemplary and I know they all have bright futures. They served as tour guides, interacted with constituents, and learned a great deal about our nation's legislative process. I was glad to be able to offer this educational opportunity to these four and look forward to seeing them build their careers in public service. All four of our interns have made plans to continue their educational careers back in Colorado and throughout the United States. I am certain they will continue in their great success and wish them all the best in their future endeavors. Mr. Speaker, it is an honor to recognize Grant Baker, Benjamin Giles, Dylan Rogers, and Courtney Thompson for their service this summer.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08. Today, it is $19,366,974,554,360.50. We've added $8,740,097,505,447.42 to our debt in 7 years. This is over $8.5 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08. Today, it is $19,362,032,846,861.90. We've added $8,735,155,797,948.82 to our debt in 7 years. This is over $8.7 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08. Today, it is $19,360,176,741,617.54. We've added $8,733,299,692,704.46 to our debt in 7 years. This is over $8.7 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08. Today, it is $19,343,541,768,823.97. We've added $8,716,664,719,910.89 to our debt in 7 years. This is over $8.7 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08. Today, it is $19,327,746,021,669.98. We've added $8,700,868,972,756.90 to our debt in 7 years. This is over $8.7 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I cosponsored this amendment today because I do not support the continuation of the Selective Service System at all--for anyone--regardless of gender. This is why I have either introduced or cosponsored legislation to do away with it every year that I have been here in Congress. The United States military has been entirely dependent on an all- volunteer force since the end of the draft in 1973. Since then we have fostered the most professional and elite fighting force in the history of this country. We should commit to keeping it that way. Since 1973, the United States has engaged multiple operations around the world including the Gulf War and later two large-scale operations simultaneously. At the height of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom nearly 300,000 American volunteer servicemen and women deployed to support these missions. We have done all of this without enacting a draft. Retired General Carter Ham, Chairman of the Commission on the Future of the Army, recently said that ``[A] return to the draft or other model of compulsory military service will not yield the quality Army the nation requires.'' And in his testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee, Secretary of Defense Ash Carter said, and I quote, ``the . . . thing I'd like to say about the Selective Service System and the draft generally is this: We want to pick our people. We don't want people forced to serve us.'' I agree with General Ham and with the Secretary of Defense. This is why I ask my esteemed colleagues to join me in supporting this amendment to remove funding from this outdated system and route it instead toward payment of the national debt.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08. Today, it is $19,316,931,693,227.11. We've added $8,690,054,644,314.03 to our debt in 6 years. This is over $7.5 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, as a member of the Colorado Delegation of the U.S. House of Representatives, I am highlighting an issue of importance to Colorado and its community of senior citizens. Earlier this year, Congress passed the Older Americans Act Reauthorization Act of 2016 and sent it to the President for his signature. This reauthorization ensures that a wide range of social and nutritional services, directed to assist senior citizens, is not disrupted. While the reauthorization improves the status quo for the state of Colorado, I still have concerns about the continuing inequity in funding going to our state in comparison to the rest of the country. In an attempt to protect certain states with shrinking senior populations, Congress in 2006 changed the Older Americans Act funding formula to ensure states received a guaranteed funding level. This is known as the ``Hold Harmless Funding Formula.'' Due to Colorado's growing senior population and this provision from 2006, Colorado (among other states) saw massive cuts during sequestration when other states did not. Instead of allowing the funding to go to states with growing senior populations, the hold harmless funding formula in the current reauthorization continues the disproportionate trend. It prevents funding in states with lower senior populations from going to states with growing levels of senior citizens. While I am supportive of the services provided by the Older Americans Act, Congress' priority should be ensuring the stability of the programs upon which millions of seniors around the country depend. I believe that moving forward, it is imperative that steps are taken in future reauthorizations to safeguard services for all seniors regardless of their state of residence. It is my hope that as Congress continues to address issues that are important to all senior citizens, we find a path forward to address the issue I've raised today.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of the DeFazio amendment, and I am a proud cosponsor of the amendment. As the gentleman from Oregon mentioned, the draft ended in 1973. Conscription ended. Then the Selective Service System was put on the shelf, inactivated, and was only activated when, in a show of resolve, President Jimmy Carter, in the aftermath of the December 1979 Soviet invasion of Afghanistan, reinstituted conscription. He reinstituted signing up for the Selective Service System. I think he suspended wheat sales to the Soviet Union as well as our participation in the Olympic Games, which were scheduled to be in Moscow. It has never been used. During the height of Iraq and Afghanistan, there has never even been a discussion within the Department of Defense, even with personnel shortages, about using the draft. In a recent study by the Army Recruiting Command, it determined that something like 75 percent of young people--military-aged people--are ineligible to serve in the United States Army. Either they are overweight; they don't have high school or have high school but don't have a high enough score on the Armed Forces Entrance Exam; they have had altercations with the law; or they have drug and alcohol issues.

Mr. COFFMAN. We have extremely high standards today. I think, in my having served in the United States Army when there was a draft, that having conscription--having people being forced to serve--compromises the extraordinary, I think, capability of our military. This is about putting it back on the shelf, as it was in 1973, and if the President, as Commander in Chief, ever felt it needed to come off the shelf, he or she could do so.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08. Today, it is $19,381,591,140,792.22. We've added $8,754,714,091,879.14 to our debt in 7 years. This is over $8.7 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize Rocky Heights Middle School for being designated as a School to Watch by the National Forum to Accelerate Middle-Grades Reform this year. This designation recognizes Rocky Heights Middle School, as well as 145 other schools nationwide, as being on-track to fulfill the requirements to be designated as a school of high performance. Rocky Heights Middle School's designation as a School to Watch places it in an elite tier of adolescent education institutions. The National Forum sets criteria for high performance in middle schools, which includes, creating an environment that challenges all students, setting up structures that address and account for the significant and unique challenges of students in early adolescence, and ensuring that students have access to high-quality teachers and resources. Rocky Heights Middle School, as a School to Watch, is well on its way to meeting these criteria. Its high level of academic achievement and its strong community have fostered an excellent educational environment for the students of Rocky Heights. This designation is an affirmation of the excellent achievements of Rocky Heights' students, as well as the continually improving work being done by the faculty. I would like to extend my sincere congratulations to the students and teachers of Rocky Heights Middle School for being one of the nation's premier adolescent education institutions.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08. Today, it is $19,256,656,157,468.52. We've added $8,629,779,108,555.44 to our debt in 6 years. This is over $7.5 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08. Today, it is $19,252,984,535,317.64. We've added $8,626,107,486,404.56 to our debt in 6 years. This is over $8.6 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08. Today, it is $19,230,063,635,793.43. We've added $8,603,186,586,880.35 to our debt in 7 years. This is over $8.6 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the boys baseball team of Cherokee Trail High School on winning the 2016 Colorado 5A State championship game on May 29, 2016. The students and staff who were part of the title-winning Cougar team deserve to be honored for winning the State championship for the first time since they won the 4A State championship in 2007. The Cougars beat Rocky Mountain High School 5-1 in the series, and ended the season with a winning 25-5 record. Throughout the season, the boys of Cherokee Trail baseball team were dedicated, worked hard, and persevered. These traits were a key factor in their endeavor to win the championship. But winning would not have been possible without the tireless leadership of their head coach, Allan Dyer, and his commendable staff. It is with great pride that I join all of the residents of Aurora, Colorado, in congratulating the Cherokee Trail Cougars on their State championship.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08. Today, it is $19,222,275,711,902.53. We've added $8,595,398,662,989.45 to our debt in 6 years. This is over $7.5 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Chair, I'd like to offer a statement in support of my amendment to H.R. 5293, the Department of Defense Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year 2017, as reported by the House Appropriations Committee. I commend my colleague, Rep. Rodney Frelinghuysen, the chairman of the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, for his work on the bill before us and I thank him and all the members of the subcommittee and staff for their hard work in crafting this important piece of legislation. My amendment seeks to transfer $6.086 million from within the Navy's fiscal year 2017 Operations & Maintenance (O&M) account, to increase funding for the Weapons Support, Fleet Ballistic Missiles, Project 934, Engineering and Technical Services sub-account managed by the Navy's Strategic Systems Program office. My objective in offering this amendment is to strengthen nuclear deterrence by improving the operational readiness and reliability of the Navy's Strategic Weapons Systems aboard Fleet Ballistic Missile submarines. At a time when Russia is flexing its nuclear muscles, both China and Russia are aggressively modernizing every aspect of their nuclear arsenals, and North Korea is conducting long-range missile tests and underground nuclear weapon tests, it is incumbent on Congress to authorize and appropriate sufficient funds to ensure the operational readiness and reliability of our nuclear forces, including the most survivable leg of the U.S. nuclear triad, the sea-launched ballistic missiles aboard fleet ballistic missile submarines. A strategic weapon system consists of the launches, fire control, navigation, test instrumentation, missile, missile checkout, guidance and re-entry subsystems. Funding in this particular account provides support for all subsystem equipment aboard Trident II (D-5) submarine- launched ballistic missiles (SLBMs) and at shore facilities. Critical readiness-related efforts include: maintenance for subsystem equipment aboard SLBMs; equipment renewal and updating during overhauls; testing and repair of various electronic and other components and subcomponents; logistics control procedures; operational flight testing; support of crew training; technical engineering services required to test, analyze and maintain reliability of the weapon system; missile maintenance operations; and targeting support. According to the Navy's Congressional Budget Justification Book, in Fiscal Year 2017 the Strategic Systems Program office was forced to absorb a program decrease in Operational Engineering Support of over $6 million. This reduction will negatively impact Navy readiness in areas such as missile anomaly evaluations, re-entry body accuracy, launcher reliability maintenance, navigation accuracy, and guidance system performance evaluations. I remind my colleagues of the fact that the Trident II (D-5) strategic weapon system will likely be in service through at least 2040, and possibly through 2080. This places a premium on engineering and technical services such as qualification and accelerated life testing, and other readiness-support efforts aimed not only at sustaining the missile system but also on ensuring its reliability. Furthermore, I would add that my amendment is entirely consistent with one of the main themes and thrusts of this bill--and the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) as well--namely, identifying serious shortfalls in readiness across the armed forces and taking steps to address those readiness challenges by adding funding, where necessary and appropriate. A nearly identical increase to this account was also authorized in the House's NDAA. In sum, given the increasingly dangerous global security environment, we must take proactive steps to bolster nuclear deterrence--and the readiness and reliability of systems such as the sea-launched ballistic missiles aboard SSBNs on which deterrence rests. My amendment is intended to move a modest amount of funds ($6.086 million) within the Navy Operations & Maintenance (O&M) account of over $40 billion to help sustain the readiness of a key leg of the U.S. Nuclear Triad, our Trident II (D-5) submarine-launched ballistic missiles.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08. Today, it is $19,218,850,296,387.20. We've added $8,591,973,247,474.12 to our debt in 6 years. This is over $7.5 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08. Today, it is $19,219,465,874,275.48. We've added $8,592,588,825,362.40 to our debt in 6 years. This is over $7.5 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.

Mr. COFFMAN

Mr. COFFMAN. Mr. Speaker, on January 20, 2009, the day President Obama took office, the national debt was $10,626,877,048,913.08. Today, it is $19,230,270,048,404.99. We've added $8,603,392,999,491.91 to our debt in 6 years. This is over $7.5 trillion in debt our nation, our economy, and our children could have avoided with a balanced budget amendment.