Jimmy Duncan

Mr. DUNCAN

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent that I be granted the time in opposition to this amendment, but I will not oppose this amendment.

Mr. DUNCAN. Yes, I'd be glad to yield.

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent to be given the time in opposition to this amendment; however, I will not oppose this amendment.

Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Chairman, I yield for such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica), the ranking Republican member of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee.

Mr. DUNCAN. Yes.

Mr. DUNCAN. I will say simply this, Mr. Chairman, that I was present in committee when Mr. Capuano first brought up his concerns and his desire to bring this type of legislation to the floor of the House, and the minority has no objection to this, and we support this. And I would be glad to, at this time, yield back the balance of our time.

Mr. DUNCAN

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, let me close just simply by saying this. I have noticed over the years that almost all of these environmental radicals come from very wealthy or very upper income families, and perhaps they can afford 5 or $6 a gallon gasoline. But many hardworking and average Americans cannot afford this. We are sending this country into a needless economic crisis. We need to start drilling in an environmentally safe way where there is oil, as the gentleman from Texas has pointed out, and not pass a hoax of a bill such as this.

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise to join my friend and colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sessions), in his opposition to this rule. Mr. Speaker, let me read just one thing to you. Charles Krauthammer is one of our most respected syndicated columnists and television commentators. A little over 3 weeks ago he wrote this: ``Gas is $4 a gallon. Oil is $135 a barrel and rising. We import two-thirds of our oil, sending hundreds of billions of dollars to the likes of Russia, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia, and yet we voluntarily prohibit ourselves from even exploring huge resources, huge domestic reserves of petroleum and natural gas. At a time when U.S. crude oil production has fallen 40 percent in the past 25 years, 75 billion barrels of oil have been declared off limits according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration.'' Still quoting Mr. Krauthammer: ``That would be enough to replace every barrel of non-North American imports for 22 years. That is nearly a quarter century of energy independence.'' Mr. Krauthammer ended by saying: ``The situation is absurd.'' Robert Samuelson, a couple of months ago in The Washington Post, and he is another syndicated columnist, but not a conservative or a Republican by any stretch of the imagination. He wrote this. He said, ``The truth is that we are almost powerless to influence today's prices. We are because we didn't take sensible actions 10 or 20 years ago. If we persist, we will be even worse off in a decade or two.'' The first thing to do, Mr. Samuelson said: ``Start drilling.'' And George Will pointed out in a recent column that when we were able to pass drilling in ANWR, 12\1/2\ years ago, President Clinton vetoed it. If he hadn't vetoed it, that would have been 27 million barrels of oil, 20 million barrels of gasoline and 7 million barrels of diesel fuel coming down to this country, coming down here every day, and would have had a great, great effect on this problem. And we are certainly in a problem. A couple of months ago we heard in the Highways and Transit Subcommittee that 935 trucking companies had gone out of business in the first quarter of this year. And that survey only counted trucking companies with five trucks or more. A couple of weeks ago, in the Aviation Subcommittee we heard that eight airlines had gone out of business in the last year and a half. And this is a needless crisis. The Minerals Management Service estimates that the quantity of undiscovered, technically recoverable resources ranges from 66 to 115 billion barrels of oil. One of our leaders has described this DRILL Act as a hoax of a bill, and it is a hoax because it still leaves 85 percent, or 611 million acres of our Outer Continental Shelf off limits for oil production.

Mr. DUNCAN

Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, one of the finest men I know, Charlie Daniel, has now completed 5 years as a newspaper editorial cartoonist in my hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee. Charlie is one of Knoxville's most popular and respected citizens. Almost every morning for all these years, people in East Tennessee have been inspired or made angry by, or perhaps simply have laughed at one of his cartoons. He has certainly helped bring about better government through his work, but the laughter is all right, too. There is not enough good humor in the political process today. I have one of his cartoons hanging in my Knoxville office and two are on the wall of my home. I have many favorites among his work, but I will give just two examples. The first showed a father reading a newspaper with the headline ``Americans Hire Illegals to Do Work They Don't Want to Do.'' Then it showed a little boy with his arm around an obviously Hispanic little boy, with the first boy saying, ``I hired Juan to do my homework.'' The second showed a man with a clipboard standing at the front door of the home of a very angry man who said, ``Well it's about time someone came to ask my opinion,'' and the man with the clipboard said, ``Sir, I'm just here to read your meter.'' Charlie worked from 1958 until the early 1990s at the Knoxville Journal, which for most of its history was our morning daily newspaper. When the Journal closed, he began to work for the Knoxville News Sentinel where he remains today. I worked at the Journal in 1968 and 1969, hired by the longtime editor, Guy Smith, who also was the man who hired Charlie. The Journal in those days gave titles easier than they gave money, and I was the Assistant State Editor, working under a woman named Juanita Glenn. Last year I was interviewed in my Washington office by a reporter for the Wall Street Journal. As we walked out, I told her I had once been Assistant State Editor for the Knoxville Journal. I didn't tell her that among my duties were the TV logs and the obituaries. The Journal newsroom in those days had the most colorful cast of characters I have ever been around. The corner of my desk touched the desk of Dick Evans, the morning editor and a great journalist. I will never forget how he slammed down his phone after every phone call, no matter whether it was a good call or bad. Others who I remember so well who worked at the Journal besides Charlie, were Steve Humphrey, Tom Sweeten, Byron Drinnon, Bill Vaughan, Sam Venable, Dudley Brewer, Pat Fields, Bob Adams, Bill Bolus, Jim Skelton, Ben Byrd, Russ Bebb, Ted Griffith, Al Roberts, Hugh Lunsford, Tom Greene, Doug Price, Raymond Flowers, and Margie Trent. Ron McMahan, Ralph Griffith, and Margaret Underwood, all of whom I knew very well, had left before I worked at the Journal to work in Washington for Senator Howard Baker. One of my longtime best friends, Bill Vaughan, later left to work for Congressman Jimmy Quillen, and even Dick Evans left to work for the Department of Commerce. A few days ago, Sam Venable, now a longtime columnist for the Knoxville News Sentinel and also a former Journal employee, wrote a wonderful column in tribute to Charlie. I would like to congratulate Charlie on 50 great years in the news business and also thank him for his service to our community in many ways. Madam Speaker, in closing, I would request that the Sam Venable column about Charlie Daniel be reprinted in the Record at this point, and I would like to call it to the attention of my colleagues and other readers of the Record. 50 Years and Still on the Job (By Sam Venable) One of the most poignant cartoons Charlie Daniel ever produced wasn't a drawing at all. It ran on the editorial page of the old Knoxville Journal on Saturday, Nov. 23, 1968, two days after the death of the newspaper's legendary editor. ``Today I find my limited talents fall far too short of paying proper tribute to Guy L. Smith--a great man,'' Daniel wrote in his signature block letters. ``I shall miss his insight, his leadership and his humor--but most of all I shall miss the man who gave me the opportunity to fill this space each day.'' That was the first and only time Charlie found himself at a loss for an image. Pretty decent statement about a 50-year career that has produced an estimated 15,000 cartoons and four books. ``I really was stymied,'' Charlie recalled of that moment four decades ago. ``It was very personal for me. Here was the guy who gave me my shot at a time when newspaper editorial cartooning was at a low point.'' Alas, the cycle has come around to an even lower ebb. Charlie, who joined the News Sentinel staff after the Journal's closure in 1992, is one of only 80 newspaper editorial cartoonists working in America today. Theirs never was a populous force, but at the craft's peak in the 1960s and '70s, nearly 300 were using their skills to poke, prod, tweak and guide the nation's conscience. Usually with a laugh. Fortunately for readers of the News Sentinel, this 78-year- old treasure has no intention of setting his pens aside. ``I'll stay as long as the light bulb comes on,'' Charlie laughed. ``I have no hobbies. I don't fish or paint or play golf. If I retired, I'd just go home and bug Patsy (his wife of 54 years). We have trouble making it through a weekend.'' You'll soon be reading, seeing and hearing a lot about Charlie Daniel. The News Sentinel is celebrating his golden anniversary this month in a variety of ways. In next Sunday's Life and Arts section, staff writer Amy McRary will profile the life of her fellow Tar Heel. On the same day, our Perspective pages will showcase some of his classics. Readers are invited to join the festivities as well. A display of Daniel drawings through the years graces our lobby at 2332 News Sentinel Drive, just off Western Avenue. It'll be open to the public 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday-Friday through September. As one of the few journalists who served with Charlie at both the Journal and News Sentinel, I'm qualified to propose Daniel trivia. Such as: --Why is the plaque he won for highway safety awareness inscribed to ``I. Daniel''? (Because he used to put a double descender on the ``D'' on his tag line, and it looked like an ``I.'' To keep from embarrassing the highway officials, he really should have changed his name to Ignatius.) --What was the ghastly mixture of pipe tobacco he used to fog the Journal newsroom with before kicking his smoking habit? (Half-and-half and some fancy-smancy aromatic blend neither of us could immediately recall after all these years; fittingly, Charlie termed it ``Half-and-Half-and-the-Other- Half.'') Obviously, it has been a joy to work alongside Charlie at both newspapers. And I mean ``alongside'' literally. As a college student in the late 1960s, my Journal police reporter desk sat an arm's length away from his drawing room. Here in the News Sentinel's new building, Chas and I reside in neighboring cubicles. I call it the Geezer Quad. That's going to change in a few weeks when our newsroom undergoes a fruit basket turnover desk rearrangement--one of those New Age efficiency initiatives the suits dream up over noon martinis. Charlie will be moving into the old business news department, which is shuffling to heaven-knows-where, while I'll be going over to his old cubicle. This is called progress. But I maintain nothing will change, because Charlie, dangnabbit, will still be closer to the window and thus will have greater access to the muse who delivers inspiration on a daily basis. Hey, I need the muse! Not Charlie! This guy swims in creative juices! Charlie shows up around 7:30 a.m. and spends several hours scanning newspapers, journals and magazines. Then he doodles with the vast array of ideas the %$#@! muse has dumped into his lap, cranks out three or four potential cartoons for the next day, decides on one, colors it and saunters out the front door, carefree as a hoppy toad. I, on the other hand, am lucky to wake up in time to grab lunch, pour a cup of coffee, exchange office gossip with colleagues, compare fishing stories over the phone with friends, e-mail the latest bawdy jokes I've heard to everyone in my address book, drink more coffee, loudly curse the moron who didn't rebrew coffee, check my parlay sheets, drink even more coffee--and then type myself into a furious, sweaty, nail-biting panic till deadline, milking the lone thread of creativity I stole from someone else until it is toast-dry. Is this fair? OK, so here's the serious truth: Charlie Daniel is blessed with the quickest wit this side of Hollywood. Plus the ability to take that humor, reduce it to a drawing and zing his point home in a panel the size of a Kleenex. Try it sometime. After you've spent a week in frustration, you might understand how difficult the task is day after day, year after year. Yet he dismisses the silly notion that he's ever had a real job. ``I'm doing what I did in the second grade,'' he says. ``I've never gone high-tech. I still draw with a pen and paper, not on a computer screen.'' Perhaps. But you don't stay on top of this game without a keen eye for news and a comedian's sense of timing. ``Some of my earlier work was overdone,'' he said. ``I've learned to know when to quit a drawing. Just make your point and stop. ``Also, editorial cartoons have a short life span. Next week, somebody might look at it and say, `What the heck was that all about?' At the same time, you can't be too quick with an idea or else you'll be ahead of the public.'' An excellent example occurred recently when NASA announced it was sending plumbing materials to the International Space Station to fix a broken toilet. The next morning, Charlie's cartoon showed a giant plunger blasting off. When confused readers began calling, he realized he'd struck too soon. ``I probably should have given that one a day or two more,'' he said. ``But you're always juggling with the fact that bloggers and late-night TV folks are already using the same material.'' Let me tell you a few things I've learned about ``Cholly'' after working with him over most of 40 years: The same fellow who has rubbed shoulders with presidents and barons of commerce is one of the most laid-back, down-to- earth, genuine nice guys you'll ever meet. He can, and often does, make a serious point without having to dip his pen into poison ink. He is a five-time nominee for journalism's highest award, the Pulitzer Prize. He is soft-spoken, leads a quiet life of humble service to society's lost and downtrodden, and is quick to laugh at himself. He takes immense delight in sharing with me visceral hate mail from the occasional reader who either misunderstood a cartoon or was its most-deserved target. Or, as one nutty reviewer ranted in misplaced criticism of country music legend Charlie Daniels (with an ``s''), ``I hate your music, too!'' I was sitting in the audience in 2005 for a humor-in- politics seminar hosted by the Howard Baker Center at the University of Tennessee. The panel featured some of the nation's most noted political wits, including the late syndicated columnist Art Buchwald. Ask anyone who saw this performance: The others were funny, but Charlie brought the house down with self-deprecating lines, one after another. That same shy attitude is reflected when he talks about the impact of his editorial cartoons: ``I'd be happy hitting .350.'' Trust me, his batting average is exceedingly higher. Ol' Ignatius Daniel has made journalism's All-Star roster 50 years straight--and counting.

Mr. DUNCAN

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of S. 3145, a bill to designate a portion of the United States Route 20A to be named the ``Timothy J. Russert Highway.'' On June 13, 2008, the Nation was shocked to learn of the sudden loss of Tim Russert, NBC News' Washington bureau chief and moderator of ``Meet the Press'' and one of our most popular television analysts. Tim Russert was known across the country as moderator for ``Meet the Press'' where he interviewed high-profile guests, bringing Washington politics into American living rooms. He was recognized for his on-the- air tenacity as a moderator and his intense passion for politics. It is no wonder that Time Magazine named Mr. Russert one of the 100 most influential people in the world. Despite his success, Tim Russert never lost sight or forgot his roots in Buffalo, New York. S. 3145 designates a portion of U.S. Route 20A located near Ralph Wilson Stadium, home of the Buffalo Bills, ``Timothy J. Russert Highway.'' Mr. Speaker, one story. Every year the Tennessee Valley A&I Fair has a couple hundred thousand people attend, and for 20 years I have continued a tradition begun by my father and have had a very large booth giving away ice water, compliments of your congressman. Several years ago Tim Russert came in to speak to a Chamber of Commerce luncheon, and I shared the head table with him with approximately 600 people in the audience. At the very first of his speech, he started out and he said, ``Congressman, I had a chance to spend a little time in Knoxville yesterday after I got into town,'' and he said, ``I went around town and I saw this big booth that said ``Free ice water compliments of your congressman.'' He said, ``I've got to hand it to you. Anybody who could gain political capital by giving away water, that's about the best political gimmick I've ever heard of.'' And he had a big laugh about that and mentioned that every time he saw me after he had been to Knoxville. S. 3145 is a deserving tribute to Tim Russert's great achievements in the field of political journalism and a reminder that he never forgot his hometown or his beloved Buffalo Bills. Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this bill.

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DUNCAN

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding this time. I rise in support of this bill. I have seen over the years a great deal of good work that has gone on by the Appalachian Regional Commission and the projects it has funded in its 13-State region and especially in my home State of Tennessee where much of their activities have been concentrated. I read recently that two-thirds of the counties in the U.S. are losing population. That surprises people in my particular district because the Knoxville area has become one of the most popular places to move to in the whole country. But there are many counties in Tennessee and throughout the Appalachian region and many small towns and rural areas that are still struggling. Many of these small towns and rural areas are barely holding on. The previous speaker mentioned more energy production. We've got to have more production of oil in this country or we're going to put the final nail in the coffin of the small towns and the rural areas because those people as a rule have to drive further distances to go to work and to meet other needs. In addition, the Office of Surface Mining caused almost all the small coal companies in east Tennessee to go out of business. I was told at one time that in 1978 there were 157 small coal companies in east Tennessee, and now are there none. I have noticed over the years that most of these environmental radicals come from very wealthy and very upper-income families. And they have always wanted gas to go higher, and they have always opposed all types of energy production. Well maybe they can afford $5 and $6-per-gallon gasoline. But most lower and middle-income people in this country can't. It may be true that we can't drill our way out of the current crisis. But we also can't get out of the crisis that we're in on energy without having more drilling for oil in this country and more production of coal where it can be done in environmentally safe ways where it couldn't be done previously. So I agree with the previous speaker that we need more domestic energy production in this country to help the Appalachian Region and also to further the activities of the Appalachian Regional Commission.

Mr. DUNCAN

Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, I rise to discuss two very important national issues that are unrelated. First, I consider national defense to be one of the most important and most legitimate functions of the National Government. Yet even I am astounded at sometimes the waste and inefficiency of the Defense Department, and I think the primary reason is that almost every defense contract is some sort of sweetheart or insider type deal. Just yesterday in the Washington Times, I would like to read a portion of a story that the Times carried yesterday. It says: ``Similarly, Edward C. `Pete' Aldridge, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics at the Pentagon, left the agency to join the board of Lockheed Martin, the Pentagon's largest contractor. Weeks before he left the Pentagon, Mr. Aldridge approved a $3 billion contract to build 20 Lockheed planes. That decision was made after he criticized the plan and threatened to cancel the contract. While serving on the Lockheed board, Mr. Aldridge was picked in 2004 to chair the Commission on the Implementation of U.S. Space Exploration Policy, a decision that drew criticism only from Senator John McCain of Arizona, now the presumptive Republican Presidential nominee, who said Lockheed was one of NASA's biggest contractors and called for Mr. Aldridge's removal because of a conflict of interest. His criticism went unheeded.'' Madam Speaker, the problem is that all of the defense contractors hire all the retired admirals and generals, it has been referred to as the ``revolving door at the Pentagon,'' or all the high level Pentagon employees, and then they come back to these same people and they get these multi-billion dollar contracts. In this example, this man awarded Lockheed Martin a $3 billion contract, the same contract he criticized at one point. But then, surprise, shock of all shocks, he approved this contract, and then a short time later joined the board of Lockheed Martin. This is just one example. I could give examples day after day of similar types of things. All of these defense contracts going to companies that hire all the retired admirals and generals, and it should be stopped. The second issue, a very important issue but very unrelated, is the issue of energy and gas prices. I would like to read part of a column by Charles Krauthammer a few days ago. Mr. Krauthammer is very respected by both sides of the aisle. He said, ``Gas is $4 a gallon, oil is $135 a barrel and rising. We import two-thirds of our oil, sending hundreds of billions of dollars to the likes of Russia, Venezuela and Saudi Arabia. And yet we voluntarily prohibit ourselves from even exploring huge domestic reserves of petroleum and natural gas.'' Mr. Krauthammer continued: ``At a time when U.S. crude oil production has fallen 40 percent in the past 25 years, 75 billion barrels of oil have been declared off limits, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. That would be enough to replace every barrel of non- North American imports for 22 years.'' That is nearly a quarter century of energy independence. Mr. Krauthammer said, ``The situation is absurd.'' George Will wrote a column a few days ago and he said this: ``One million barrels is what might today be flowing from ANWR if in 1995 President Bill Clinton had not vetoed legislation to permit drilling there. One million barrels produce 27 million gallons of gasoline and diesel fuel.'' And Robert Samuelson, who is not really considered a conservative or Republican columnist, he is a columnist for the Washington Post, he wrote a few weeks ago this. He said, ``The truth is we are almost powerless to influence today's prices. We are because we didn't take sensible actions 10 or 20 years ago. If we persist, we will be even worse off in a decade or two. The first thing to do, start drilling.'' Madam Speaker, I am one of the very few Members who has been up to Prudhoe Bay in Alaska twice. I have been up there to this frozen tundra. There are millions of acres without a tree or a bush on that entire expanse up there, 19.8 million acres, 36 times the size of the Great Smokey Mountains, part of which I represent. They want to drill on about 2,000 or 3,000 acres of this 19.8 million acre refuge. It takes a survivalist to go in there. In fact, Time Magazine said 4 years ago it only had about 200 visitors a year. It is ridiculous that we do not drill in an environmentally safe way. Most environmental extremists, I have noticed over the years, they come from very wealthy or very upper-income families. Perhaps they can afford gas to go to $5 or $6 a gallon. They have said for years they wanted gas prices to go higher so people would drive less. But I can tell you this: They are hurting a lot of poor and lower-income and working people in this country, and they are shutting this country down economically. We heard in the Highways and Transit Subcommittee a few weeks ago that 935 trucking companies had closed in the first quarter of this year, and they only counted trucking companies with five trucks or more. Two weeks ago we heard in a hearing of the Aviation Subcommittee that eight airlines had shut down, had ceased operating in the last year-and-a- half, and one more was in receivership. We are at a very dangerous point. We don't have to produce all of our oil or all of our energy, but we have got to start producing a little bit more, or these foreign energy producers are going to know they can keep on raising these prices, and as I say, they are going to hurt a lot of working and ordinary Americans in the process.

Mr. DUNCAN

Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, in the last 2 days there have been two major stories about comments made by the prime minister of Iraq. In the first, he said that terrorism in Iraq has been defeated. In the second, the Iraqi prime minister said he wants to negotiate a departure date for U.S. troops. Yet, because the Defense Department has requested more money for Iraq this year than any year of the war so far, you can rest assured that we will not be leaving any time soon. This war has always been more about money and power than about any real threat to the U.S. Saddam Hussein's total military budget was only a little over 2/10 of 1 percent of ours. As the conservative columnist Charley Reese wrote a few years ago: We attacked a country that had not attacked us, that had not even threatened to attack us, and was not even capable of attacking us.'' Now some are gloating about the success of the surge as if this somehow justifies all the deaths, all the injuries, and all the waste, fraud, and abuse of previous years. Well, surely with the expenditure of hundreds of billions of dollars, there would be a few successes along the way. It is not criticism of the troops to say that this was a very unnecessary war that we should never have been in, in the first place. This war has meant massive foreign aid, huge deficit spending, and has put almost the entire burden of enforcing U.N. resolutions on our taxpayers and on our military. It has gone against every traditional conservative position I have ever known. The Democrats recently passed a budget raising our national debt limit to $10.5 trillion. We are still borrowing staggering amounts of money, and this war has been our largest single expense. The Defense Department, like any giant bureaucracy, always wants more money, yet we simply cannot afford to keep spending at the rate our military leaders want. Georgie Anne Geyer, the conservative foreign policy columnist, wrote a few months after the Iraqi war started that, ``Americans will inevitably come to a point where they have to choose between a government that provides services at home or one that seeks empire across the globe.'' This war has already become the most expensive and wasteful war in American history. There has not been anything fiscally conservative about the war in Iraq. In fact, there has been so much waste of money, so much fraud, so much excessive and lavish spending that fiscal conservatives should be the ones most upset about all this. According to the Government Accountability Office, we already have $53 trillion to $54 trillion in unfunded future pension liabilities on top of our national debt, and this figure is going up every day. We are now spending at the rate of $500 million a day, every day, for our military ventures in Iraq and Afghanistan. In just a few short years we will not be able to pay our Social Security and veterans pensions and all the other things we have promised our own people with money that will buy very much. Evan Thomas in the June 23 issue of Newsweek wrote, ``American politicians have gone to extraordinary lengths to be seen as Churchill, not Chamberlain, with results that have not always been in America's best interest.'' He wrote that Saddam Hussein and Slobodan Milosevic were frequently compared to Hitler. ``But,'' Thomas wrote, ``the only real Hitler was Hitler. Saddam and Milosevic were murderers, but at most local menaces.'' Both parties are falling all over themselves trying to prove their patriotism, and thus are afraid to question any Pentagon expenditure. And the Defense Department seems to know that no matter how wasteful or inefficient it becomes, that Congress will keep on giving it huge increases. Where are the fiscal conservatives? Where are those who will say that, since the surge has been successful, we need to spend less money in Iraq, not more? Where are those who supported this war who will not back up the Iraqi prime minister and say it is time to start bringing our troops home? Surely conservatives, who have always been the biggest opponents of world government, are not going to say we should keep on running Iraq and simply stay there forever regardless of how the Iraqis themselves feel. At some point we need to start putting our own people first once again. At some point, Madam Speaker, we need to stop borrowing hundreds of billions to spend in other countries, and take care of our own people.

Mr. DUNCAN

Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, I wish to honor a man whose professional accomplishments and personal character have brought great distinction to Tennessee and this Nation. Retired U.S. Air Force BG Walter J. ``Bud'' Bacon passed away on Monday, June 2, 2008. General Bacon was always very kind to me and is a man for whom I have the greatest respect. As a Vietnam and Korean War Veteran, General Bacon earned many decorations and awards, including the Legion of Merit with oak leaf cluster, Distinguished Flying Cross with two oak leaf clusters, Bronze Star Medal, Meritorious Service Medal, Air Medal with 11 oak leaf clusters and Air Force Commendation Medal with oak leaf cluster. For a man of many remarkable military achievements, it would have been easy for General Bacon to lose touch with his roots. This was never the case. After his retirement, General Bacon was a vocal, active presence at Knoxville area Veterans meetings and a founding member of the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial Association. Memories of his humor, humility, and devotion to East Tennessee will endure for many, many years. General Bacon's life is a truly America story of Patriotic determination. He had always wanted to attend West Point but was turned down twice for not meeting the height requirement. As the story goes, he came up with a plan to have his friends carry him lying flat early in the morning to the physical. The reason--he heard you were tallest when you first wake up. Whether the doctor was impressed with his determination or the tactic truly put his height over the top, General Bacon went on to have one of the greatest careers in the Air Force of any man ever. It was an American dream come true. General Bacon loved God, family, and his Country, and never stopped serving them all. Right up until his death, the highly-decorated General greeted wounded soldiers returning home from Iraq. Madam Speaker, in closing, I offer my condolences to General Bacon's family, and call to the attention of my colleagues and other leaders of the Record the eulogy of General Bacon, given by his friend Retired United States Air Force COL Joseph E. Sutter, which is reprinted below. Eulogy for Brigadier General Walter J. ``Bud'' Bacon, USAF (Retired) Friday, June 6, 2008, First Presbyterian Church, Knoxville, TN (Delivered by Joseph E. Sutter, Colonel, USAF (Retired)) Joyce, Betsey, Katy, and all of your families--let me thank you for the honor and high privilege to say a few words about my friend, Bud Bacon. I knew him as ``Bud,'' and for some reason he called me ``Josephine.'' I can't say that I ever knew why. Some of you knew him as ``Buddy.'' Some as ``General.'' Others as ``Pa,'' and some of you knew him as ``Grand Buddy.'' No matter--we all felt the same about him. I first met him some 14 years ago, and I certainly wish I had known him longer. Within a few weeks of meeting Bud, I remember coming home and telling my wife Geri: ``When I grow up, I want to be like Bud Bacon.'' Allow me to share with you a few of the reasons why. Bud had a great attitude about life. One of the entries in the blogs in the Knoxville News Sentinel said that Bud Bacon had the attitude that the ``glass is half full.'' He was always happy, and had an infectious laugh. As his daughter Betsey relates, her father was fond of saying: ``If I die tonight, I will die a happy man.'' He had the love of his family--actually two families. He loved to travel. He loved his country, and made serving his country his profession. I'll say more about this a little later. And he loved his God. Love of Community Bud loved his community. He came home after a distinguished Air Force career and immediately began to ``give back'' by supporting so many worthwhile activities, including the Ramsay House Plantation, the Military Order of the World Wars (MOWW) Youth Leadership Forum, the University of Tennessee Center for the Study of War and Society, the Knoxville Veterans Day Luncheon, Memorial Day Services, Pearl Harbor Day Ceremonies, Flag Day Ceremonies, the Air Force Association, and so many others too numerous to mention. Love of Friends Bud had the love of so many friends, and he would go ``the extra mile'' for any of them. Allow me to tell you a short story of how he went not only the extra mile for me, but the extra 6,000 miles! Geri and I were visiting Vienna, Austria, a number of years ago and were window shopping on a Saturday afternoon. There was a unique terry cloth robe in one of the stores that I wanted to get for Geri, but she said that we could wait until tomorrow so we would not have to carry it the rest of the day. What we did not realize is that most of the shops are closed on Sunday, and we were returning home the following day.I casually mentioned this story to Bud a few weeks later, and he said that he and Joyce were visiting Vienna soon, and he would look for the robe. Sure enough, when they returned they brought the robe over, and it remains a prized possession today mainly because of the extra effort that Bud put forth to get it. He was always looking to do good thing for others. He nominated me for a community service award, and I nominated him for a similar award. As it turns out, he was a better writer than me! (I won and he did not). On Wednesday, May 21st, Bud came to the Knoxville airport early in the morning to wish a safe trip to more than 100 World War II veterans heading to Washington, DC, to see the WW II and other Memorials as part of HonorAir Knoxville. We were looking at the pictures of the sendoff the other day and there wasBud with a big smile on his face wishing the ``old timers'' a great trip. When I talked to him that morning, he said he was heading off to Green Meadow Country Club to play golf after we left. Love of Golf And while Bud certainly had a love of golf, he freely would admit that he was not the greatest golfer in the world, but he always had fun. When I would ask him how he did, his usual answer was ``lousy!'' Bud and I had the same barber, Curry Whittaker of Volunteer Barber Shop. Both Bud and Curry were left-handed golfers, and Curry offered to let Bud use a new driver that should help improve his game. Bud was excited, but the next time he came into the shop he tossed the driver back to Curry and said: ``This thing didn't help a bit!'' And he enjoyed golf with his brother, John. My brother Frank and I were on a golf trip together last week and we thought of Bud often. This helped us cherish our time together even more. And one final golf story. Shortly after I met Bud, we were together at an Air Force Association (AFA) meeting and agreed that it would be fun for the local AFA chapter to sponsor a golf tournament. After trying for more than a year to find someone to come forward and organize the tourney, Bud and I agreed that we would hold one in the fall, even if it was only the two of us playing together at Green Meadow. The annual event is now in its tenth year, and with the approval of Joyce, the tourney will now be named in his honor: ``The Air Force Association General Bud Bacon Memorial Golf Classic.'' Bud would want all of you golfers to join us this fall for fun, and what a great way to honor his legacy. Love of Country And perhaps his love was most on display in how he felt about his country. I'm sure many of you know how he got admitted to West Point, but let me share with you one of the versions of that wonderful story. Bud was too short--he did not meet the minimum height to be admitted so he enrolled at the University of Tennessee. After being turned down at West Point for the second time, he heard that you are a little bit taller in the morning when you first get up, as compared to later in the day when your body has time to compress or shrink. He hatched a plan to have some of his friends carry him to be measured first thing in the morning, without standing up. Depending on whose version of the story you believe, he either just made the height, or the doctor was impressed by his dogged determination and signed off on the physical. In either case, the rest is history--he went on to a very distinguished career in the US Air Force. He used this story to make the point that ``. . . if you want something bad enough, you can achieve it.'' Who would have thought that someone could actually make himself taller? He may have been short in stature, but he was very tall on determination and character! In the Air Force, he was tested in combat in two wars: Korea and Vietnam. His unit in Vietnam was known as the ``Misty FACs,'' or forward air controllers. According to Bud's friend and fellow fighter pilot, retired Air Force Colonel Charlie Harr: ``The Misty FACs were among the first to perform a very dangerous mission. They were widely known for their daring and bravery.'' Bud had command of the 31st Tactical Fighter Wing at Homestead AFB, FL, later in his career. I spoke to one of his pilots that I know, retired Air Force Lt. General Don Peterson. Here is what Don had to say: ``His leadership at Homestead was splendid. He knew how to lead and get the job done, but just as importantly, he knew how to take care of the people who served under him. He was a role model for us all. Our morale was higher than ever, which made us all--and our Air Force--better.'' Bud was an active member of virtually every local military organization, including the Air Force Association, the East Tennessee Military Affairs Council, the East Tennessee Veterans Memorial Association, and he was the driving force behind the renovation of the Doughboy Statue and Plaza at Knoxville High School, his alma mater. He was the Grand Marshall of the 2004 Knoxville Veterans Day Parade. I know you all remember the wonderful picture of Bud that appeared in the News Sentinel--proudly in uniform, saluting, smiling, and with several flags in his hand. I have a copy of that picture with me today. It's clear that he deeply loved our country's flag and proudly and properly displayed it at his home. He always had it lighted at night and would take it down when he and Joyce traveled. Joyce would say that he might forget a few things from time to time, but would never forget to take down the flag. And he planned the music for this service. Is there any doubt that he loved his country? Finally, Bud sent an e-mail to his grandson Schuyler, a proud Marine who had recently returned from Iraq. Bud wrote the e-mail on Friday, May 23rd, the day before he took ill. What a summary of Bud's feelings. This is what Bud had to say--his own words: Subject: ``Words of Encouragement'' If I may quote you, Schuyler, you said: ``I believe strongly in what we're doing. . . .'' Those are, again in your words, words of encouragement to me. Those of us in uniform are obedient to our leaders and commanders, and we believe in the rights and privileges we have inherited--from those who went before us, in uniform and not in uniform. We are not automatons; we do have hearts and souls and minds of our own. But we recognize we are chosen to do the tough work--when tough work has to be done. The pictures of you in uniform and in combat are treasures; you look as sturdy as the truck. You have made the Bacon family proud. Keep us informed of your progress toward special operations. Love, Grand Bud Faith Finally, we know that faith was large part of his life. Bud taught Sunday school and was a Deacon at this church. The words of Saint Matthew, Chapter 25, seem appropriate to sum things up: ``Well done, good and faithful servant.'' I know we all believe that Bud is in heaven with our God in Paradise. It doesn't get any better than that. That is why, ``When I grow up, I want to be like Bud Bacon.''

Mr. DUNCAN

Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, I wish to honor a close friend and exemplary public servant who has brought distinction to the State of Tennessee. I have known Park M. Strader for many years, and he is someone I hold in the highest regard. In fact, Parkey (as he is known to his friends) was an intern for my father when he was a Member of Congress. Since then, Representative Strader has built an illustrious career in public service, devoting his life to making Tennessee a better place. During his two terms as a Representative to the Tennessee General Assembly, Representative Strader worked tirelessly for his constituents. No problem was too small for his attention, nor did he hesitate to tackle the big issues of the day. As a member of the House Commerce and State and Local Government Committees and the House Local Government, State Government, and Industrial Impact Subcommittees, Representative Strader was a major factor in the rapidly expanding economy of East Tennessee. His intellect and dedication earned him a reputation as one of the most respected, knowledgeable public servants in Tennessee. Representative Strader's public service spans many decades and has earned him many awards. Prior to his service in the Tennessee State House, Representative Strader served seven terms--28 years--as Knox County's Property Assessor. During that time, he was one of the most important contributors to helping keep Knox County taxes low and help keep Knox County government running economically and efficiently. With a history of service and dedication to Tennessee, I know Representative Strader will continue to work for the public good even in retirement. Madam Speaker, in closing, I urge my colleagues and other readers of the Record to join me in congratulating State Representative Park M. Strader on his commendable service to the people of East Tennessee. I am proud to call him my friend and wish him well on whatever new endeavors await him.

Mr. DUNCAN

Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor a Tennessean who has comforted and inspired thousands of people in East Tennessee. Reverend William J. Fowler of Knoxville, Tennessee has spent the last 42 years as a Minister of the Gospel. During that time, he was a role model for his congregation and an inspiration to other ministers. As the head of Church Street United Methodist Church since 1994, Rev. Fowler's compassion and devotion helped grow the congregation into the thousands, and his leadership has been invaluable to the United Methodist Church. Rev. Fowler served as a member of the Board of Trustees of Emory & Henry College, where he chaired the Religious Life Committee. He also served as a member of the Holston Conference Board of Higher Education and Ministry and the Holston Conference Ethics Committee, and he was a member of the Institutional Review Board of Bristol Regional Medical Center. In his final sermon, Rev. Fowler urged his congregation to heed God's call: ``God can send different persons to us, and point us the way that he wants us to go.'' He told his followers that his farewell does not mark the end of his service, but the continuation of God's Ministry. I urge my colleagues to join me as I salute Rev. William J. Fowler and wish him and his wife the best as they enter a well-deserved retirement. His calling as a reverend, friend, and leader will continue to inspire many. Madam Speaker, in closing, I would like to call to the attention of my colleagues and other readers of the Record the article from The Knoxville News Sentinel newspaper, which is reprinted below. [From the Knoxville News Sentinel, June 7, 2008] Familiar Pair at Church Street UMC To Retire (By John Shearer) Just as the landmark Church Street United Methodist Church on Henley Street has changed little in appearance in recent years, so have its worship leaders. However, the Rev. William Fowler, who has served as senior minister for the last 14 years, and Jim Rogers, who has been the organist and choirmaster since 1979, have announced plans to retire. Fowler, whose tenure has been considered long for a denomination with itinerant clergy, will preach his last sermon on June 8, while Rogers is leaving in late July. The Rev. Andy Ferguson from Broad Street United Methodist in Cleveland, Tenn., will be the new senior minister, while a search is under way for Rogers' replacement. Fowler, the son of a Methodist minister, began his career after graduation from Duke Divinity School as an assistant pastor at a church in Scotland beginning in 1968. He had come to Church Street from First United Methodist in Bristol and had no idea he would stay so long. ``The first Sunday I was overwhelmed and frightened,'' he said. ``Hearing the organ open up on, `Lift High the Cross,' I said, `God, what did you get me into?' I certainly made some mistakes, but I gave all my effort to God and said I tried.'' Fowler, who is building a retirement lake-side home in Kingston with his wife, Virginia, plans to stay away from a pulpit but near a pen and computer writing books. Rogers had come to Church Street from a similar position at Belle Meade United Methodist in Nashville. At Church Street, he has maintained the church's style of more traditional and formal music in an era when contemporary Christian music has become popular. ``People pass a lot different styles of worship to come to this church,'' he said. Rogers said the most satisfying part of his work has come not from the performances, but in practice. ``The challenge is seeing what you can get out of a group of singers,'' he said. ``God doesn't deserve your second best.''

Mr. DUNCAN

Mr. DUNCAN. I yield 2 additional minutes.

Mr. DUNCAN

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, gas prices are now over $4 a gallon and may be headed higher. Almost all environmental radicals come from very wealthy or very upper income families. Environmentalists apparently want gas to go even higher so people will drive less. Well, maybe these wealthy environmentalists can afford $5 a gallon gas, but many poor and lower income and working people are already hurting. Week before last we heard that 935 trucking companies have gone out of business in the first quarter of this year. We can produce oil now in environmentally safe ways, and we don't have to produce all of our oil. But if we don't start producing a little more, and soon, we're going to become even more vulnerable to foreign oil producers, and we're going to hurt many working people in the process.

Mr. DUNCAN

Mr. DUNCAN. Madam Speaker, Ian Lustick, a professor of the University of Pennsylvania and research fellow at the Independent Institute in California, wrote an article in The Hill newspaper a few days ago which made a great deal of sense. He wrote this: ``Nearly 7 years after September 11, 2001, what accounts for the vast discrepancy between the terrorist threat facing America and the scale of our response? Why, absent any evidence of a serious domestic terror threat, is the war on terror so enormous, so all-encompassing, and still expanding? The fundamental answer is that al Qaeda's most important accomplishment was not to hijack our planes but to hijack our political system. For a multitude of politicians, interest groups, professional associations, corporations, media organizations, universities, local and State governments, and Federal agency officials, the war on terror is now a major profit center, a funding bonanza, and a set of slogans and sound bites to be inserted into budget, project, grant, and contract proposals. ``For the country as a whole, however, it has become a maelstrom of waste and worry that distracts us from more serious problems.'' Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security, testified before the Senate a few months ago in a way no other Cabinet member probably ever has. He essentially said we are spending too much on security and should not let an over-exaggerated threat of terrorism ``drive us crazy,'' into bankruptcy, trying to defend against every conceivable threat. He went on to say: ``We do have limits and we do have choices to make. We don't want to break the very systems we're trying to protect. We don't want to destroy our way of life trying to save it. We don't want to undercut our economy trying to protect our economy, and we don't want to destroy our civil liberties and our freedoms in order to make ourselves safer.'' Secretary Chertoff was exactly right. I believe that most Members of Congress will vote for almost anything if the word ``security'' is attached to it so that they will not be blamed if something bad happens later. We should do some things to protect against terrorism, but we should not go overboard if we still believe in things like freedom and liberty. Actually, most security spending is more about money for government contractors and increased funding for government agencies than it is about any serious threat. Just 3 weeks after 9/11, when security requests for money were already pouring in, the Wall Street Journal hit the nail on the head in an editorial: ``We'd like to suggest a new post-September 11 rule for Congress: Any bill with the word 'security' in it should get double the public scrutiny and maybe four times the normal wait lest all kinds of bad legislation become law under the phony guise of fighting terrorism.'' The Wall Street Journal was exactly right. Unfortunately, Congress has not followed this good advice. But it is just as relevant today as it was when it first written. Bruce Fein was a high ranking Justice Department official during the Reagan administration. He says the Federal Government has, ``inflated the international terrorism danger in order to aggrandize executive power.'' This is true, in part. Most agencies and departments do exaggerate the threats or problems they are confronting to get more power. But they primarily do so to keep getting increased appropriations. Certainly, we need to take realistic steps to fight terrorism. But if we gave the Department of Homeland Security the entire Federal budget, we still could not make everyone totally safe. In a cost benefit analysis, you fairly quickly reach a point in the terrorism threat where more spending is almost totally wasted. People are hundreds of times more likely to be killed in a wreck or die from a heart attack or cancer. We need to spend more on the greatest threats. Also, we need to make sure we do not lose our liberty in a search for an illusive security. Bruce Fein wrote that if the, ``war against international terrorism is not confronted with corresponding skepticism, the Nation will have crossed the Rubicon into an endless war, a condition that Madison lamented would be the end of freedom.'' Madam Speaker, to sum up, a few people are getting rich at the expense of many by claiming that they are trying to increase our security. We don't need to make our already bloated Big Brother government even bigger just because some company or some bureaucrat callously uses the word ``security'' just to get more money and power.

Mr. DUNCAN

Mr. DUNCAN. What I'm getting at, Mr. Speaker, is this: This Congress is going to go down as the most fiscally irresponsible Congress in the history of this Nation if we keep spending at this rate. No one can legitimately call themselves a fiscal conservative if they vote for all these bills. David Walker, who just retired as the head of the GAO, respected by both sides, said that even worse than the $9 trillion national debt that we have is the 53 to $54 trillion in unfunded future pension liabilities. It's not going to be many years, Mr. Speaker, before we're not going to be able to pay all our Social Security and veterans pensions and all the other things we promised our people if we keep spending in the reckless manner that we're doing so today and in the days ahead.

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the rule that brings this bill to the floor and to this $15 billion bailout bill, and I thank the gentleman from Washington for yielding me this time. Mr. Speaker, I think up here we lose sight of how much $15 billion really is. Fifteen billion dollars would operate the entire State government of Tennessee for almost 1 year, our education, our medical care, our prisons, our roads, our parks. And Tennessee is almost dead on average, statistics-wise, in regard to all the States. Over 95 percent of the people are paying their mortgages on time. Consistent with that, about 95 percent of the people who have contacted my office or spoken to me about this bill, they don't want us to bail out people who have taken out loans that they couldn't afford. But even worse than that, the $15 billion that's in this bill, even worse, we're going to pass later today a $300 billion housing bill that we really can't afford. Tomorrow we're probably going to pass a $250 billion supplemental appropriations bill. That's $565 billion in 2 days. And all three of these bills are outside the regular or don't even count the regular appropriations bills that we'll be taking up. Next week, we're going to pass an almost $300 billion farm bill. A couple of weeks ago it came out that the Pentagon has had $295 billion in cost overruns on just their 72 largest weapons systems, not counting the cost overruns that would be in all the thousands of other large and medium size and small contracts. Last week, we rejected an effort by the administration to save $50 billion over the next 10 years on the Medicaid rules even though payments to hospitals under the Medicaid program have gone up two to three times the rate of inflation every year for the last 15 or 20 years.

Mr. DUNCAN

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, first of all, I want to thank Chairman DeFazio for his strong and enthusiastic support for this resolution, and I want to add my support for House Resolution 964. I introduced this resolution because of a tragic 15-passenger van accident last July in which a 10-year-old girl from my hometown of Knoxville was killed. Alexis ``Lexie'' James was traveling in a 15-passenger van being driven by close family friends to Savannah, Georgia, for a softball tournament. The driver was not a professional driver with a commercial driver's license. In fact, a commercial driver's license is not required to drive 15-passenger vans. This van was privately owned, and there were only five passengers: the dad and mom, their 16- and 10- year-old children, and Lexie. On July 17, 2007, as the van was traveling east on Interstate 26 near St. Matthews, South Carolina, the left rear tire of the van blew out, and the van ran off the right side of the highway, down an embankment, overturned, struck a fence, crossed the frontage road, and came to rest on its side. Everyone in the van was wearing a seat belt, but somehow Lexie slipped out of her belt and was ejected from the van onto the frontage road and was killed. I have met with Lexie's dad, Patrick James, and he is asking some hard questions about the safety of 15-passenger vans. The resolution we are considering today focuses on safety issues that are firmly within the jurisdiction of the Transportation and Infrastructure Committee regarding driver and passenger behavior, including the need for better driver training and passenger safety information. A 15-passenger van does not handle or operate like a larger version of a passenger car. These vans have a higher center of gravity, which makes them less stable and more difficult to handle. In addition, the bodies of the vans extend 4 to 5 feet beyond the rear wheels, causing instability during emergency maneuvers such as sudden turns. This causes the vans to fishtail, and because they are top heavy and may be overloaded in the rear, they are prone to roll over and result in devastating crashes. In May of 2005, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration issued a consumer advisory safety warning to all drivers of these vehicles. The precautions that NHTSA recommends for all drivers of 15- passenger vans are: One, keep your passenger load light. Two, check your van's tire pressure every week. Three, require all occupants to use seat belts or the appropriate child restraint. Four, if possible, seat passengers and place cargo forward of the rear axle. Five, do not place loads on the van's roof. Six, be very mindful of speed and road conditions. Better driver training and more thorough dissemination of safety tips like these are the best tools we have right now to help save the lives of other children and adults riding in 15-passenger vans. As Chairman DeFazio just stated, this resolution is a first step towards calling the public's attention to the very dangerous situation or condition of some of these 15-passenger vans and how prone they are to very serious vehicle accidents. I strongly support this resolution and hope to make this important safety issue a priority for the Nation. Mr. Speaker, I urge all of my colleagues to support this resolution. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. DUNCAN. Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers. Once again I would thank Chairman DeFazio for his support and for his offer to hold a hearing on the safety involving these 15-passenger vans. I urge my colleagues to support this resolution.