Norm Dicks

Mr. DICKS

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran), the ranking member of the Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee.

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from Connecticut, Congresswoman Rosa DeLauro, who is the new ranking member on the Health and Human Services Appropriations Subcommittee and who was the former chairman and ranking member on Agriculture.

Mr. DICKS. I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished former chairman and now ranking member of the THUD Appropriations Subcommittee, the gentleman from Massachusetts (Mr. Olver).

Mr. DICKS. Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. DICKS. Will the gentlewoman yield?

Mr. DICKS. The Pentagon does not want to kill this program. I just want to make sure that you understand that, because this is one of the highest priorities for the Marine Corps, the Air Force and Special Operations. Most of the problems you're talking about have been taken care of.

Mr. DICKS. I yield myself 1 minute. I would say to the gentleman, here is the problem: There are, I think, about 29,000 of these vouchers out there now. And you are correct; some of them haven't been able to find a place to live yet. Secretary Shinseki, who I talked to personally about this, and Secretary Donovan have said there are 60,000 of these veterans who need this voucher. So there are 30,000 more that we need to do. I was shocked when I saw on the list of terminations that your side decided to terminate this program. I hoped you would reconsider that.

Mr. DICKS. I yield to the gentleman from Iowa.

Mr. DICKS. That is what I was going to ask the gentleman. I would like to work with him on this. So if that's the gentleman's intent, then we will work together and try to get the job done.

Mr. DICKS. I now yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Serrano), the former chairman and now the ranking member of the Financial Services Committee. (Mr. SERRANO asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. DICKS. I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Price), who has been the chairman and now the ranking member of the Homeland Security Subcommittee.

Mr. DICKS. I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from New York, the former chair of the State, Foreign Operations Subcommittee, now the ranking member, my good friend, Nita Lowey.

Mr. DICKS. I yield 1\1/3\ minutes to my good friend, the distinguished gentleman from California (Mr. Farr), who has now become the ranking member on Agriculture.

Mr. DICKS. I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished Democratic Whip, the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Hoyer), who has been a longtime member of the Appropriations Committee and a very good friend.

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

Mr. DICKS. I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Bishop). He has become the new ranking member on Military Construction and VA.

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Chairman, I yield the balance of my time to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Fattah), the new ranking member of the Commerce-Science-Justice Subcommittee.

Mr. DICKS. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. DICKS

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the requisite number of words.

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

Mr. DICKS. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. DICKS. I strongly support the gentleman's position here. We've already cut this account. There's $58 million in the account; a reduction of $89 million, or 60 percent below FY10. And the NIST does very good work. So I support the chairman and in opposition to the Latta amendment.

Mr. DICKS. Mr. Chairman, if the gentleman will yield, we accept the amendment on our side too.

Mr. DICKS

Mr. DICKS. I appreciate the gentleman, Mr. McGovern, yielding. I want to stand here today and tell you that we're all worried about the economy. We're all worried about getting people back to work; we have 9 percent unemployment. But the reality is there are a lot more people who have lost their jobs who have given up looking or are underemployed. This is the most serious economic problem we've faced since the Great Depression. Now, unfortunately, the choice of the majority is to cut very substantially into programs that are in the domestic accounts and $15 billion from defense. We all understand we have got to get spending under control and we have to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse. We have to look at this oil subsidy issue, which the oil companies even are embarrassed about. But what I worry about here is with this approach we are going to hurt the economy. We are going to drive unemployment up. We're going to drive the deficit up. And it is countercyclical. When you cut this much spending, it is going to hurt the fragile recovery, and it's not going to put people back to work. The other side seems to think that by making these cuts that the private sector is going to say, ``aha'', and invest all kinds of money and create jobs to offset these cuts. As the Democratic majority leader has just said, there are highly regarded studies out there that show that 800,000 jobs will be lost because of this bill. That will have a major negative impact on the economy. Also, one program that I looked into and I hope we can fix is the voucher program for homeless veterans. This has been a program that's been going on for about 3 or 4 years. Homeless veterans can get a voucher and go through their public housing authorities and get a place to live. There are almost 30,000 people in this program; and the ones that are in it are doing better--less alcohol, less drugs. They're getting jobs. They're feeling better about themselves. And there is a need, according to General Shinseki, now head of the VA, for another 30,000 of these vouchers. This money is in the 2012 budget request. It was in the 2010 budget request. The majority decided to terminate this program. I would hope we could reconsider that. The program is working, and we need another 30,000 of these vouchers.

Mr. DICKS. The most recent data indicates that 10,000 of these veterans are from the Iraq and Afghanistan war. These are young people coming back who have served their country, and they deserve to have these vouchers if they need them. And we should restore this program. Again, I think we should vote against the rule, vote against the previous question.