Louie Gohmert

Mr. GOHMERT

Mr. GOHMERT. Here we have been hearing so much about the financial crisis, and the Secretary of the Treasury has said that we need $700 billion to bail out Wall Street. He doesn't use those words. It's so ironic. We've been hearing Boone Pickens talk about $700 billion. But he has been talking about the massive transfer of wealth from the United States to countries, many of whom don't like us, where we're buying their oil, when we could be producing our own if the majority would just let us do so. So when we talk about a financial crisis, and we talk about that influx of $700 billion being spent on American energy and American jobs being created, because I know you and I have talked about it before, and you haven't touched on it tonight about the effect of that $700 billion being spent on our shores in ANWR. Do you want to touch on that?

Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, at this time I do want to yield such time as he may consume to the man who has been talked about a great deal. If I didn't know better and didn't know him so well, I would say they've been exaggerating, but there has been no exaggeration, a great man, a great Representative. It's been an honor to serve with him I yield to Jerry Weller of Illinois

Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, we are going to miss the Honorable Jerry Weller and do appreciate all he has done for this country, not just for the people of Illinois. Well it is with great pleasure that I rise tonight to pay tribute to a constituent, a good friend, a former colleague, Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent, who will be retiring at the end of this year following 25 years of judicial service. So I wanted to make this tribute a part of the permanent Congressional Record so that people in future generations would know of this great judge. Throughout her years of faithful service to the State of Texas, Judge Kent has gained the respect and admiration of friends, colleagues and especially fellow judges. Her knowledge of the law and commitment to bettering the judiciary is not just well known in east Texas but throughout the country. East Texas has been blessed to have such a wise leader. And it's truly a better place to live because of her hard work. After receiving her law degree from South Texas College of Law in Houston, Judge Kent moved to Tyler, Texas, with her husband, Don. She opened her own law firm, but in 1984 she left the lucrative practice to dedicate herself to public service. For 4 years she served as judge of the Smith County Court at Law Number Two. She oversaw misdemeanor criminal cases, workers' compensation cases, substantive civil cases, condemnation cases, mental health, probate, juvenile, family law and appeals from justice of the peace and municipal courts. After 4 years in that capacity, Judge Kent was successfully elected as the first woman to serve on the Texas 114th Judicial District Court serving both Smith and Wood counties. As judge of this court, she has overseen felony criminal cases, divorce and family law, juvenile, land claims, election contests, very substantive civil cases, workers' compensation, contested probate matters, and juvenile law in general. She has diligently presided over this court for the past 20 years. Now throughout her career, Judge Kent has established herself as a wise, hardworking, law and order judge. There is not much question about that. She has cleared a large backlog of cases while gaining a reputation among criminal defendants as a judge you wanted to avoid. Judge Kent is widely known for her strong commitment to teaching and to furthering her own legal education. During her time on the bench, she received a masters of judicial studies from the National Judicial College, and she is currently working toward candidacy for a Ph.D. She served as a faculty instructor at the National Judicial College teaching ``advanced evidence'' and ``handling capital cases.'' She has spoken and taught at countless judicial conferences, seminars and courses throughout the country, all the while dedicating herself to the east Texas community by serving as a volunteer instructor at Texas College in Tyler, Texas. Judge Kent has written and co-authored numerous publications, and she has served on a variety of boards and associations. Most recently she was chosen by Governor Rick Perry to be a member of the Governor's Criminal Justice Advisory Council which is tasked with the difficult job of reviewing the criminal laws in Texas. It's undeniable that Judge Kent has distinguished herself as one of the Nation's leading judicial scholars. Throughout all of the many demands of her professional career, Judge Kent has managed to raise a wonderful family with the love and support of her husband, Don Kent. The Kents have been married for over 32 years and have three sons, Drew, Jarad and Wayne. Judge Kent's dedication and commitment to God, her family, the law and to faithfully serving east Texas is evident not just from the accomplishments already mentioned, but from the admiration and kind words of almost anyone across the region. She has been a wise judge, a dependable colleague, a patient instructor and a dear friend whose leadership has been an inspiration to so very many. Whether you agreed or disagreed with her, you never wondered where she stood. ``Shy and withdrawn'' were never adjectives used in the same sentence with her name. During my years as a judge, I served at the opposite end of the courthouse on the same hall, same floor. It was always such a comfort to know that as difficult questions arose on exceedingly complex and even life-and-death cases, I had a knowledgeable friend whose judgment and advice could be trusted at the other end of the hall. All it took was a walk down the hall to her office or she to mine for an insightful, methodical discussion of the law to arrive at a proper solution. I was always in awe of just how amazing she was at multitasking like no one I had ever seen. She is truly an extraordinary person. Judge Kent is to be congratulated for her so many years of dedicated service, and now with retirement, she should be thanked for her committed devotion to the people of east Texas. My condolences on the other hand also have to go out to Smith County residents on the loss of such a dedicated jurist. May God bless Judge Cynthia Stevens Kent and all of the work that she has done. Now Madam Speaker, at this time I would like to yield such time as he may consume to my friend from Illinois, Mr. John Shimkus. We have been in a financial crisis, we're told, and my friend, John Shimkus, has been talking about something that could have avoided the whole problem. And I would yield such time as he may consume.

Mr. GOHMERT

Mr. GOHMERT. Madam Speaker, we are told that those who have refused to learn from history are destined to repeat it, and it is true. We are not learning from history. I love the President, and I disagree about Iraq. But last night, the statements that came to a conclusion had an extremely faulty premise, and that premise was that the Federal Government is the only one that can properly manage these assets long enough, that has the patience. That's ridiculous. We serve in this Congress. We can't even keep the same incentives in place for a year or two. China, we just heard, is now telling its banks, don't loan to us. They are totalitarian, and we should be concerned about it, but they are moving toward capitalism. Let the private sector make its money and pay us tax. We are moving that way. This will be the biggest socialist move in American history, and it breaks my heart that so many are thinking maybe this is all we can do. The Soviet Union lasted 70 years when they did this type of thing. We won't make it that long. I beg colleagues on both sides, let's look at this and not move socialist.

Mr. GOHMERT

Mr. GOHMERT. The Web site goes on to say: ``Members should have at least 24 hours to examine bill and conference report text prior to floor consideration.'' Oh, that's another thing. We don't even have conference reports anymore, because if we had a conference, then there would be Republicans from the House that would be required to get to have input, and that's not going to happen. So the conference reports instead became Democrats getting together, working out in the Senate and the House--though, I think they may have let some Republicans in the Senate throw in a line or two--but nobody from the House. Not fair, not open. And it says that it ``must be reported before 10 p.m. for a bill to be considered the following day.'' They found a way to completely avoid the conference process so that rule doesn't even matter anymore. Now, the promises on the Speaker's Web site are so far from what's been happening in this, the most closed-door Congress in history. All I can say is that because of the vast abuses, at some point the majority will change again. Maybe not this year. At some point it will, because the American people begin to notice eventually, and some eventually will be shocked by the broken promises that were never fulfilled. You can only fool the American people for so long before they figure it out. There may even be consequences for people across the aisle, apparently only for show, being on an energy alternative bill and then having two dozen of those people--it was their bill, and they voted against it, having already acknowledged that was the best bill. Maybe there will be consequences for doing that. Accountability and fairness also mean that if people are going to use electric or fossil fuel-produced energy they should not try to prevent people who are not as wealthy as they are from being able to have the same opportunities to purchase that fuel on less income, that they would have to allow more to be produced to do that. It means if you're going to use energy, then allow us to get it in America so it produces American jobs, increases America's gross national product, creates a better standard of living for more Americans. It will stop funding Nations that allow their assets to slip into the hands of those who want to destroy us. You cannot keep sending money abroad and not have a day of accountability when it will come back to haunt and truly hurt us badly. It's time to quit sending $700 billion a year out of this country for energy that we have. Sure, let's produce the renewables. We have got to go to those for our future. And alternative energy sources would be terrific. Some of us have come up with innovative things that will allow us to go way into the future with cheap energy, but right now, as my farmers tell me, we can't find a Prius tractor. When electricity was lost for days because of this Hurricane Ike that came through my district, as people pointed out to me, there are no hybrid generators. They run on fossil fuel. Accountability to strengthen the Nation means that children have to have rules, and that when a man and a woman voluntarily have sexual relations, they have made their choice, and they will be accountable and bear the consequence of igniting a life in this world. Accountability means that if you're a CEO of a company and you run a corporation into the ground, you should not receive millions of dollars in severance and a thank you for your greedy destruction. Instead, you should have to pay. So, tonight, I want to close with a motion and a supporting speech made by Benjamin Franklin. Let me set the stage here. The American Revolution, you remember the Declaration of Independence, 1776. And then the war went on for 7 years. We got to 1783. The revolution was won. There was a Treaty of Paris, 1783. I did not know until I came to Congress, as a historian, history degree I've got, I didn't know until I saw an original copy in the State Department of the Treaty of Paris of 1783--this was a critical document because this was getting Great Britain to acknowledge in writing that the United States was a country that was and should be free and they would have to recognize that. So they wanted it in the name that even Great Britain would be afraid to break and breach. I was shocked. It starts with big, bold letters at the top of the Treaty of Paris that forced Great Britain to recognize us; in these big, bold words it says, ``In the name of the most Holy and undivided Trinity.'' Then we had the Articles of Confederation in this country, but they were too loosely woven. There were a number of problems, no common currency; there were problems and haggling between the States. And by 1787, it was very clear that if the Nation was to survive, it was going to have to have a new constitution. So they went to George Washington and said, we need you to come back to preside. And he said, I did my part as God led me to do and you appointed me to do; I did my part. And they said, You don't understand; the 13 colonies will only come back together if you are willing to preside because they know you, they know your heart, they know you're not in it for yourself; you proved that the day you surrendered all power, as had never been done in the history of the world, surrendered all power and went home; won the revolution, commander of the military. You know, when you do that, historically, you could be called Czar, King, Caesar, whatever you want to be called. George Washington didn't do any of that. When King George, III heard that Washington might resign after the revolution and just go home, he knew history, he said that would never happen. He said, in his exact words, ``If Washington were to do that, he would be the greatest man alive.'' He probably was. So then we come to have the Constitutional Convention, with George Washington presiding. They went on for nearly 5 weeks with no success. At that point, Benjamin Franklin was recognized by the President of the Constitutional Convention, George Washington. And Benjamin Franklin rose to his feet and this is what he said--his exact words as recorded by James Madison with help from some of the others there. Benjamin Franklin: ``Mr. President, the small progress we have made after four or five weeks close attendance and continual reasonings with each other--our different sentiments on almost every question, several of the last producing as many noes as ayes, is, methinks, a melancholy proof of the imperfection of the human understanding. We indeed seem to feel our own want of political wisdom, since we have been running about in search of it. We have gone back to ancient history for models of government and examined the different forms of those Republics which having been formed with the seeds of their own dissolution now no longer exist. And we have viewed modern states all around Europe, but find none of their constitutions suitable to our circumstances. In this situation of this Assembly, groping as it were in the dark to find political truth and scarce able to distinguish it when presented to us, how has it happened, sir, that we have not hitherto once thought of humbly applying to the Father of Lights to illuminate understanding? In the beginning contest with Great Britain, when we were sensible of danger, we had daily prayer in this room for the Divine protection. Our prayers, sir, were heard, and they were graciously answered. ``All of us who were engaged in the struggle must have observed frequent instances of a superintending Providence in our favor. To that kind of Providence we owe this happy opportunity of consulting in peace on the means of establishing our future national felicity. And have we now forgotten that powerful friend? Or do we imagine that we no longer need His assistance? ``I have lived, sir, a long time. And the longer I live, the more convincing proofs I see of this truth--that God governs in the affairs of men. And if a sparrow cannot fall to the ground without His notice, is it probable that an empire can rise without His aid? We have been assured, sir, in the Sacred writing that, ``except the Lord build the House, they labour in vain that build it.'' Firmly believe this; and I also believe that without His concurring aid we shall succeed in this political building no better than the builders of Babel. ``We shall be divided by our little partial local interest, our projects will be confounded, and we ourselves shall become a reproach and bye word down to future ages. And what is worse, mankind may hereafter, from this unfortunate instance, despair of establishing governments by human wisdom and leave it to chance, war and conquest. ``I, therefore, beg leave to move that henceforth prayers employing the assistance of heaven and its blessing on our deliberations be held in the Assembly every morning before we proceed to business, and that one or more of the clergy of this city be requested to officiate at that service.'' According to the record, Mr. Sherman seconded the motion. Mr. Speaker, that was George Washington's recognition of Benjamin Franklin, and the words I read are verbatim from Benjamin Franklin. We've begun every day here in this House, here in session with the prayer, just as Franklin moved and requested. There is a higher power; there has to be accountability. Decisions in this body must be made in deference to the Father of Lights, as Benjamin Franklin called Him, and doing so with prayer, and as Franklin prayed, that God will illuminate our understanding. We are in a perilous time, and it is time for responsibility and accountability, or otherwise, we lose this precious country. It is time now for the majority leadership to stop playing so fast and loose with the rules and with enforcement of the rules. It is time that, after 2 years in the majority, that promises of opportunity to amend bad Democratic bills be fulfilled. It is time that rules apply to CEOs, to speakers, to committee chairmen, to leaders, and the leaders start leading by example. George Washington said, back during the revolution, these words: ``A people unused to restraint must be led, they will not be drove.'' He led from the front. When I was in the Army, they taught you to lead from the back. Not Washington, he led from the front. He said, ``A people unused to restraint must be led, they will not be drove.'' As someone pointed out previously, we have the only National Anthem whose first verse ends with a question: Oh say does that star-spangled banner yet wave, o'er the land of the free and the home of the brave? The answer as to whether that banner will yet wave depends on whether this Congress begins to acknowledge some accountability and do the right and the wise thing, not the convenient, not the political thing, do the legal, ethical and moral thing, not the Woodstock thing. May we get back to following God's directives so that this does not cease to be the land of the free and the home of the brave. May we get back to those things that cause God to pour out his richest blessings.

Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, there's great concern all over the Nation for those who follow what is going on in our financial institutions. That concern is entirely appropriate. There's great anxiety all over the Nation by hardworking men and women who do not know how they're going to be able to continue to pay the soaring energy costs for both their vehicles and their homes. Yet, still, the Congressional leadership continues to refuse to put a piece of legislation on the floor for a vote that could immediately send us well on our way to energy independence by allowing us to produce that with which this Nation has been so blessed. There's much anger over the disgusting immorality of corporate executives who padded their own pockets with millions of dollars by creative bookkeeping and representations that mortgage securities had value that they did not actually have. There's incredulity in America over Members of Congress who have spent years decrying the culture of corruption, only to have information come out raising questions about failures to pay proper taxes under the income tax laws that may have been written by such person. There's incredulity that the FBI might find cold hard cash secreted in a freezer 3 years ago, causing people to wonder why nothing has happened. There's amazement from those who have bothered to notice that last year a vote could be lost by the Democratic majority, fair and square, then the rules be changed to allow a different outcome. There's astonishment among those who have bothered to notice that the majority leadership could continue to advertise on-line that this would be the most open Congress in history, with complete use of the committee process, and each bill being subjected to full amendment opportunities and across-the-board input, yet, we continue to have the most closed and dictatorial Congress in memory. While people in America were being overwhelmed by killer gasoline prices and home energy costs, the United States Congress took 5 weeks off. When over 100 Members of Congress played by the rules and signed up in a timely manner to speak for 5 minutes on the last day of our session in July, before the 5-week recess, the majority party used that majority, yet again, to cram down an abrupt adjournment on us to prevent our speaking with the microphones on. Yet, we spoke with the microphones off anyway. When points of order have been raised regarding rules violations or alleged ethical malfeasance, the majority has used their power to table legitimate objections to prevent the violations from being corrected and from even being called violations. They've even gone so far as to have the transcript of the proceedings in this Chamber changed to cover up the inappropriate behavior and rulings from the day before, but the video certainly revealed the truth. I simply could not and still struggle to understand how this body could go so far off course. When we find that our Nation has been brought to the brink of financial failure, there was fear with wailing and gnashing of teeth. But we find that in 2002 and 2003, when the Bush administration was pushing for and demanding reforms of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac just to try to avoid this type financial disaster that they foresaw, the efforts at reform were blocked by people against whom allegations have now arisen in the Senate who were reported to have gotten sweetheart deals from the financial industry. The foresight of such potential problem is to the Bush Administration's credit. But the failure to continue to beat the drum, warning that something was amiss does fall at the feet of the administration and Members on both sides of Congress. There's one word that can prevent the destruction of our little experiment in democracy, as some of our forefathers referred to it, that could also prevent the destruction of a family, of a company, of a society or of a government or a Nation, and that word is accountability. When Adam and Eve were convinced there was no accountability, they fell from grace. When the only man mentioned in the Bible who was said to have a heart after God's own actually had no earthly accountability, King David himself committed atrocious wrongs. When people are convinced that there is no accountability for sexual relations outside marriage, and there turns out to be consequences of a pregnancy, some think it would be punishment to allow a child to be born alive. When the highest officers in a company think they can raid the retirement funds of their longstanding employees and be mega-wealthy, with no one to whom to account, they raid whatever is in the company as if it were their own. Some corporate leaders allow workers to come into this country illegally, just so the owners can pocket a little more profit, despite the fact that it diminishes the society and Nation from following the rule of law and for being a Nation of laws. And though these same people can't see it coming, history makes very clear that such violations of the rules of law will destroy a Nation and society. It makes this Nation appear, at times, to be a corrupt Third World Nation where the law just does not mean much. When a society believes that if it feels good, do it, and there is no accountability, society ceases and an animal kingdom full of the basest instincts of animals takes over. When Members of Congress think that they're too big and important to ever be accountable, they display hubris or arrogance and engage in tawdry financial dealing with the taxpayers' money. When people in government begin to feel that there is no accountability for them, they will allow massive overspending that the country cannot afford. They will create monuments to themselves with other people's money. They will allow the vast national wealth to be sent to other countries that do not like us very much, just so the energy does not have to be produced in the backyard of the selfish. In 1995, the House and Senate both passed a bill that would bring about drilling in what Jimmy Carter, as President, designated for drilling, because there is no wildlife there. It's a perfect place for drilling. And that is in the coastal area where there are billions of barrels of oil. But President Clinton vetoed the bill. In the last Congress, we passed a bill to provide for drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf, but the Democrats blocked it from getting the required 60 votes to allow cloture in the Senate, so there was no vote up or down on the bill itself in the Senate, and it died there; while our country was dying. Here our country is in a terribly difficult time with these extremely high energy rates, and our Democratic leadership still supports sending $700 billion a year to nations, many of whom do not like us. If that $700 billion sends familiar, it's because it's also the amount that Secretary Paulson says that we need at this time to save the mortgage and financial system. Congressman Joe Barton proposed that, in this time of financial crisis, why not open up ANWR out of necessity? Why not open up the Outer Continental Shelf and use the billions of dollars that will come from that to help mitigate the expense of financial crisis here? What a great idea. But the majority leadership does not see that this Nation will have an accountable judgment day where we will be accountable for what we did not do to use the blessings that we have here in this Nation of tremendous amounts of energy. So what will it take to get people here to see that you cannot spend unabatedly, and you cannot send money overseas with reckless abandon without an accountability, a judgment day coming? There will indeed be a high price to pay. As Chuck Colson once said, you cannot have the morals of Woodstock and not have the current problems. If you do have people whose world view is that if it feels good you should just do it then, as Chuck Colson says, you're going to have Columbines. When the message of a majority of those serving in Congress is that we will only follow the rules when it is convenient, then the message to the world is that we will not be bound by the rule of law, as we will change it whenever we want to suit us as we please. When our Nation's children see the adults sending such a clear message by their conduct, and the rules don't apply to us if we don't want them to, according to the majority, then you can expect the Nation's children to soon follow suit. That leads us to Enrons among the adults, the Fannie Mae fiascoes among the adults. And from our children, you begin to see wayward kids thinking maybe it will feel good to shoot people, so let's see. Well, if there's a higher power, there's a reason for accountability. If there is no higher power, then there is no reason to worry about our accountability. You can get away with all you want in this life with no adverse consequences at all. For those who think there is no ultimate accountability, no ultimate judgment of the universe, I would point you to the discussion C.S. Lewis had in his book ``Mere Christianity.'' He had said that when he was an atheist, he used to love to tweak Christians by saying, ``Why don't you just admit that there cannot be a just God over the universe when there is so much injustice in the world?'' And no matter what the Christian would say, he would come back and say, ``Yes, yes, yes. That's all well and good. But wouldn't it be easier just to admit there cannot be a just God over the universe when there is so much injustice in this world?'' Eventually, it hit him like a ton of bricks. How could he say--and who was he to say--that there was injustice unless there is some absolute, unwavering outside source of right and wrong? If there were not such a universal source of right and wrong that is written on the hearts of people, then how could anyone ever know or say that there was injustice in the world? You couldn't know. Once you come to grips with the fact that there is a universal source of right or wrong in the world, then you have to come to grips with the fact that there must be a good God that made it so, and there will be accountability some day. Therefore, no one will ultimately be above the law. Now, not everyone sees everything exactly the same, of course. C.S. Lewis noted that that just because some can sing closer to the notes printed on a page doesn't mean the music doesn't exist. It just means some do a better job of hitting closer to what the exact and appropriate note is. There is right and wrong in the world, and most people innately know that. But they rationalize--and we find it all across the House and in Congress--people rationalize that it is more fun to say there is no God, perhaps no Creator so they don't have to feel guilty or consider that some day someone will judge them. So long as we recognize, as our founders did, that there is a Creator who has endowed us with unalienable rights, then we should recognize that we have a duty to protect those rights for the sake of ourselves and those that follow. Perhaps that is why there is such an effort underway to sterilize and remove God or any reference to Him from all public buildings and documents these days. If we keep mentioning God, as the founders of this Nation did constantly, then it reminds us that we will some day be accountable even if we get away with things today. People do not like to feel guilty so they want to strike God out of everything. For example, as our society progressed to the point that we were too smart, too elusive to be accountable to God, we had our first national memorial in 2003 open that does not anywhere in it mention the word ``God.'' First memorial to do that. That was the Franklin D. Roosevelt Memorial. In all of those acres at the expansive memorial, there is no mention of God, Creator, Providence, Holy Trinity, Holy Spirit, Lord, all of these different names that were in our founding documents. They're still found throughout our documents, if anyone cares to look. Nor is there any mention of the Latin words that are found in our official great seal that's on the back of every dollar bill. If you don't believe it, pull it out and look. Those Latin words are ``Annuit Coeptis,'' meaning He, God, has smiled on our undertaking. Those words are also found around the Capitol and in the Senate Chamber and in the congressional prayer chapel. Franklin D. Roosevelt was a leader of this Nation who believed strongly in accountability and that there was a God before whom that would happen. On June 6, 1944, D-day, President Roosevelt went on national radio and did an amazing thing as President: he led the Nation in prayer. And I would like to just read that for you at this time. And for those that may look in, Mr. Speaker, they will be able to know from the poster, this is President Franklin D. Roosevelt's prayer during his radio broadcast to the Nation on June 6. Here is that prayer as I read it verbatim as President Franklin Roosevelt gave it. And understand, as President Roosevelt prayed this prayer, our soldiers were dying fighting valiantly during D-day trying to save the world and make it safer for democracy. This was his prayer: ``My fellow Americans: ``Last night when I spoke with you about the fall of Rome, I knew at this moment that troops of the United States and our allies were crossing the Channel in another and greater operation. It has come to pass with success thus far. And so in this poignant hour, I ask you to join me in prayer.'' President Roosevelt went on, ``Almighty God: Our sons, pride of our Nation, this day have set upon a mighty endeavor, a struggle to preserve our Republic, our religion, and our civilization, and to set free a suffering humanity. ``Lead them straight and true; give strength to their arms, stoutness to their hearts, steadfastness to their faith. ``They will need Thy blessings. Their road will be long and hard. For the enemy is strong. He may hurl back our forces. Successes may not come with rushing speed, but we shall return again and again; and we know that by Thy grace, and by the righteousness of our cause, our sons will triumph. ``They will be sore tried, by night and by day, without rest--until the victory is won. The darkness will be rent by noise and flame. Men's souls will be shaken with the violences of war. ``For these men are lately drawn from the ways of peace. They fight not for the lust of conquest. They fight to end conquest. They fight to liberate. They fight to let justice arise, and tolerance and goodwill among all Thy people. They yearn but for the end of battle, but their return to the haven of home. ``Some will never return. Embrace these, Father, and receive them. Thy heroic servants, into Thy Kingdom. ``And for us at home--fathers, mothers, children, wives, sisters, and brothers of brave men overseas, whose thoughts and prayers are ever with them--help us, Almighty God, to rededicate ourselves for renewed faith in Thee in this time of great sacrifice. ``Many people have urged that I call the Nation into a single day of special prayer. But because the road is long and the desire is great, I ask that our people vote themselves into a continuance of prayer. As we rise to each new day, and again when each day is spent, let words of prayer be on our lips, invoking Thy help to our efforts. ``Give us strength, too--strength in our daily tasks to redouble the contributions we make in the physical and the material support of our Armed Forces. ``And let our hearts be stout, to wait out the long travail, to bear sorrows that may come, to impart our courage unto our sons, wherever they may be. ``And, O Lord, give us faith. Give us faith in Thee; faith in our sons; faith in each other; faith in our united crusade. Let not the keenness of our spirit ever be dulled. Let not the impacts of temporary events, of temporal matters of but fleeting moment--let not these deter us in our unconquerable purpose. ``With Thy blessing, we shall prevail over the unholy forces of our enemy. Help us to conquer the apostles of greed and racial arrogances. Lead us to the saving of our country, and with our sister nations into a world unity that will spell a sure peace--a peace invulnerable to the schemings of unworthy men. And a peace that will let all of men live in freedom, reaping the just rewards of their honest toil. ``Thy will be done, Almighty God. ``Amen.'' That was a prayer of our President, Franklin D. Roosevelt. Now, in the 1950s, senator majority leader Lyndon Johnson was sick of having churches harp on him over alleged immortality, so he fixed them. He added a provision to the charitable institution laws that governed churches that says in fact you could not maintain your charitable tax- free status if you got involved in politics. That dramatically changed the Nation that had been known from our beginning. There again, majority leader Johnson's efforts were an attempt to prevent judgment for what was alleged as improper conduct. No one enjoys accountability. But to have a free Nation, a just Nation, a prosperous Nation, and a blessed Nation, there must be accountability. Then in 1962, an unaccountable Supreme Court that begins every single session with a prayer that God will save that honorable court, they changed nearly 200 years of precedence by ruling there could be no prayer in schools. As mentioned in 2003, the first national memorial opened as the FDR Memorial that never mentioned God. In 2004, the second memorial in United States history opened that did not mention God anywhere either. That was the World War II Memorial. Understand, these are both beautiful memorials. They're just Godless, yet their subjects were certainly not. Amazingly, the park service had quotes from Eisenhower and Roosevelt in the World War II Memorial that had to be cut right at the right place so their quotes would not mention ``God'' or ``Almighty God'' as those two gentlemen and great leaders did. I have a Bible here. My aunt says my uncle, my late uncle, got when he entered World War II. On the front, it says--it has got a metal cover--``May the Lord be with you.'' He said he was issued this as he went into the Army. Right inside the fly leaf there's a message. It says, ``The White House, Washington. As Commander in Chief, I take pleasure in commending the reading of the Bible to all who serve in the Armed Forces of the United States. Throughout the centuries, men of many faiths and diverse origins have found in the sacred books words of wisdom, counsel, and inspiration. It is a fountain of strength. And now as always, an aid in attaining the highest aspirations of the human soul.'' Signed Franklin D. Roosevelt. They used to issue these to people going into the service. Let me read to you the speech that was given on the floor of the United States Senate by Senator Robert Byrd on June 27, 1962, which is the day or two after the Supreme Court ruled there would be no public prayer in school. I'm reading it as Senator Byrd's speech appeared in the Congressional Record. And Mr. Speaker, I've got a chart here that says it's Senator Robert Byrd's speech on the Senate floor, June 27, 1962. And this is what he said. Senator Byrd, 1962: ``In as much as our greatest leaders have shown no doubt about God's proper place in the American birthright, can we, in our day, dare do less? ``In no other place in the United States are there so many, and such varied official evidences of deep and abiding faith on God in the part of Government as there are in Washington. ``Every session in the House and Senate begins with prayer. Each House has its own chaplain. ``The Eighty-Third Congress set aside a small room in the Capitol, just off the rotunda for the private prayer meditation of Congress. The room is always open when Congress is in session, but it is not open to the public. The room's focal point is a stained glass window showing George Washington kneeling in prayer. Behind him is etched these words from Psalm 16:1 `Preserve me, O God, for in Thee do I put my trust.' ``Inside the rotunda is a picture of the Pilgrims about to embark from Holland on the sister ship of the Mayflower, the Speedwell. The ship's revered Chaplain Brewster, who later joined the Mayflower, has open on his lap the Bible. Very clear are the words, `The New Testament according to our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.' '' On the sail is the motto of the Pilgrims, ``In God We Trust, God With Us.'' The phrase, ``In God We Trust,'' appears opposite the President of the Senate, who is the Vice President of the United States. The same phrase, in large words inscribed in the marble, backdrops the Speaker of the House of Representatives. Above the head of the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court are the Ten Commandments, with the great American eagle protecting them. Moses is included among the great lawgivers in Herman A. MacNeil's marble structure group on the east front. The crier who opens each session closes with the words, ``God save the United States and this honorable Court.'' Engraved on the metal on the top of the Washington Monument are the words: ``Praise be to God.'' Actually, parenthetically, the words are Laos Deo, Latin, meaning ``Praise be to God,'' and actually, again parenthetically, that was put on the east side of the top of the Washington Monument for a purpose. Because those, so many decades, years ago, wanted it such that when the sun touched the Nation's capital, Washington, D.C., the first thing that the sun would touch would be the Latin words, Laos Deo, ``Praise be to God.'' Interesting. Lining the walls of the stairwell are such Biblical phrases as ``Search the Scriptures,'' ``Holiness to the Lord,'' ``Train up a child in the way he should go, and when he is old he will not depart from it.'' Numerous quotations from scripture can be found within the Library of Congress' walls. One reminds each American of his responsibility to his Maker: ``What doth the Lord require of thee, but to do justly and love mercy and walk humbly with thy God,'' Micah 6:8. Another in the lawmaker's library preserves the Psalmist's acknowledgement that all nature reflects the order and beauty of the Creator, ``The heavens declare the glory of God, and the firmament showeth His handiwork,'' Psalm 19:1. And still another reference, ``The light shineth in darkness, and the darkness comprehendeth it not,'' John 1:5. Millions have stood at the Lincoln Memorial and gazed up at the statue of the great Abraham Lincoln. The sculptor who chiseled the features of Lincoln in granite all but seems to make Lincoln speak his own words inscribed into the walls. He said, ``That this Nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom, and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth.'' At the opposite end, on the north wall, his Second Inaugural Address alludes to ``God,'' the ``Bible,'' ``providence,'' ``the Almighty,'' and ``divine attributes.'' It then continues: As was said 3000 years ago, so it still must be said, ``The judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'' On the south banks of Washington's Tidal Basin, Thomas Jefferson still speaks: ``God who gave us life gave us liberty. Can the liberties of a Nation be secure when we have removed a conviction that these liberties are the gift of God? Indeed I tremble for my country when I reflect that God is just, that his justice cannot sleep forever.'' These words of Jefferson are a forceful and explicit warning that to remove God from this country will destroy it. Those are the words of Senator Robert Byrd back in 1962. We have a visitor's center, the Capitol Visitor's Center, CVC for short. It cost over $621 million. It is slated to open December 2 of this year. So far, it had been completely sterilized of any mention of God in any form. It was not until over 100 Members of Congress sent a letter and followed up repeatedly with more concern that we finally got a concession this past week that ``In God We Trust'' would be put above the mock-up of the Speaker's rostrum area there in the visitor's center, because what had been there before was a fraud and a deception and attempted to represent that there was no ``In God We Trust'' above our Speaker's head. There will also be accountability someday for this majority leadership playing so fast and loose with the rules. When rules and laws don't matter, then we lose this blessed country that was founded as a Nation of laws, because people are not perfect. People need rules. We need accountability. That means that the majority leadership, if they play by the rules, they're going to lose a vote every now and then, and that's okay. Don't break the rules just to keep from losing a vote. The rule itself is too important to do that. It also means that the Speaker and other leadership of the majority must abide by the rules as promised, and the promises are actually still on the Speaker's Web site but have not been followed as expected. Let me just read you from the Speaker's own Web site. This is from the Speaker's Web site, as I pulled them off today. ``Every person in America has a right to have his or her voice heard.'' It would have been nice if that had been remembered the last day of our session on August 1 before there was a 5-week vacation. We didn't get to have the microphones on so we could be heard. But it continues: ``No Member of Congress should be silenced on the floor''--it would have been nice if somebody had noticed that--``as has been the practice of Republican leadership in the United States House of Representatives.'' A little slap there. Anyone smell hypocrisy? It goes on and says: ``Respectful of both the wishes of the founders, and the expectations of the American people, we offer the following principles for restoring democracy in the `People's House,' guaranteeing that the voices of all the people are heard.'' That just makes me sick to read those words and to think about what's happened in the last year and a half. Then it goes on. It says: ``Bipartisan administration of the House. Our goal is to restore accountability, honesty and openness at all levels of government. To do so, we will create and enforce rules that demand the highest ethics from every public servant, sever unethical ties between lawmakers and lobbyists, and establish clear standards that prevent the trading of official business for gifts. Honest leadership''--on the speaker's Web site it said--``is not a partisan goal. It is the key to a stronger union.'' I agree. But it goes on to say: ``We must all work together to put the progress of all Americans ahead of the special interests of the few.'' I certainly agree with that, too. It goes on and says: ``With honest leadership and open government, America's leaders can once again focus on the urgent needs of the American people.'' How about energy? American people need energy. They need cheaper energy. We need to get off the addiction to foreign oil. They're not addressing that. We took off on a 5-week vacation when the people needed us most. The Web site goes on and says--this is the Speaker's Web site-- ``bills should be developed following full hearings and open subcommittee and committee markups, with appropriate referrals to other committees. Members should have at least 24 hours to examine a bill prior to consideration at the subcommittee level.'' Boy, that would have been nice last week when we got slapped with an energy bill that didn't go through subcommittee, didn't go through committee, had not one single Republican getting to have any input in that energy bill last week, and it was posted, as I recall, at 9:45 the night before we had to vote on it. It would be nice if these things on the Speaker's Web site were followed. ``Bills should generally come to the floor under a procedure that allows open, full, and fair debate consisting of a full amendment process that grants the minority the right to offer its alternatives, including a substitute.'' How long has it been on a bill of any substance that the minority was given an opportunity to have amendments? Closed rules over and over and over and over.

Mr. GOHMERT

Mr. GOHMERT. I thank my dear friend from Georgia for yielding. This has been a really difficult week. Having spent the weekend with my constituents that were hit by a hurricane in east Texas, and then coming here to Congress and figuring, surely we can put party issues aside because, frankly, when I was in the district, it was around, I don't know, the wee hours, and one sheriff that was helping said, now, you know I'm a Democrat. I said, you know I don't care. It doesn't matter. And then I get back to Washington and that's all it's about. You know, the Democrats have the majority and they were determined to shut out any ideas from the Republicans. There was a wonderful bipartisan bill, as you pointed out, the Abercrombie/Peterson bill had 38 Democratic cosponsors that understand the importance of energy. Twenty-four of them voted against their own bill when that was made as a substitute. And it's just incredible how something is being rammed down on the Nation when we can't afford it. People need gasoline. They need diesel. Some of those guys pointed out, they've lost power. There are no hybrid generators, and that's what's keeping about a third of my district going.

Mr. GOHMERT. Thank you. I know we're running out of time. But one of the comments that was made about Ike, making it so scary, it was a hurricane that was coming in the middle of the night. And when it comes in the middle of the night, it is scarier. And that's exactly what happened with this Democratic energy bill. It was filed at nearly 10:00, and it was a hurricane disaster for this country.

Mr. GOHMERT

Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I just came back from a weekend of being with my constituents that were hit by a hurricane. They don't care about Republican or Democrat, and they cannot find a generator that's a hybrid generator. They need help. And when I went and was dealing with sheriffs that were trying to get help for their people in the middle of the night, one of them said, You know I'm a Democrat. I said, You know I don't care. People need help in America, and this bill that's been put on the floor will provide none of the above. The litigation has stopped 68 million acres from being drilled, and now once we find that out, we find out that's their ace in the hole to keep this bill from producing anything. People want hope. People need gasoline. They need diesel. They don't need a joke that is turned into a mean, mean, hurtful bill.

Mr. GOHMERT

Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, we know that litigation has been stopping all of the attempts at drilling and will continue to do so unless there was something in the bill to end the litigation. So we know that is going to stop it. We know that this bill has an opt-in for States but won't give them a dime of revenue so they are not going to opt in. So what this has become is akin to what I saw this weekend after the hurricane. On the radio and on the phone people were told that this gas station at such and such location now has gas. People would run down there only to find it was out of gas. That is what this bill does. Here is energy; people are going to run out, and when they get there, they are going to find out there isn't any.

Mr. GOHMERT

Mr. GOHMERT. Thank you, Madam Speaker. Dr. David O. Dykes has been pastor of Green Acres Baptist Church for about 17 years while being a true leader, spiritual guide, and dear friend. In Tyler, Texas, Green Acres has over 14,000 members and is the most mission-minded church anywhere. Recognized this year with the highest award of the Southern Baptist Convention, Brother David, as his church knows him, has taken seriously the admonitions of Jesus to feed His sheep, minister to their needs, and take the Gospel into all the world. As I heard here from a Florida pastor yesterday, Brother David is truly an inspiration and a blessing because of his evident burden for reaching out to help others. He faithfully serves our church, the local community, our country and world. He dearly loves his amazing wife, Cindy, their daughters Jenni and Laura Grace, and their husbands Jason and Jim. He and Cindy are now the proud grandparents of Lizzi and Caroline. God's love is evident in the life and love of Brother David as today's congressional chaplain. Madam Speaker, though I am allowed only 1 minute, it would take many times more than that to adequately extol the virtues of this great American pastor.

Mr. GOHMERT

Mr. GOHMERT. I thank my friend from Iowa for yielding. Of course, we have had a good bit of discussion on energy. One of the things that has gotten a lot of attention is this moratorium on drilling in the Outer Continental Shelf. It was interesting to talk to Ralph Regula, a Congressman here, who said he was here in 1981 when the first moratorium got put in place. If you go back to President Jimmy Carter, he signed a declaration stating that the Outer Continental Shelf was such an asset for this Nation that it should be developed expeditiously. Those were the two words: Developed expeditiously. So what happened to that? Jimmy Carter saying, Wow, we have got this fantastic resource for oil and natural gas that would help the American people and solve so much of our energy problems. What happened? Well, Ralph explained he was on the committee when there was some wealthy beach front owners, landowners in California, and of course there had been an oil spill around Santa Barbara in California, a bad spill. Amazingly, people complained about the drilling platforms when actually it's the tankers that spilled the stuff bringing it from other places. But, anyway, wealthy, just the rich, who had beach front property, said they didn't want to look out there and have to see a rig, no matter that it might bring cheaper gasoline or cheaper natural gas prices, which could mean cheaper fertilizer, cheaper foreign products, cheaper plastics, cheaper all kind of things. Never mind about that. The wealthy didn't see that as a problem. They didn't want to see the rigs out there so they begged and pleaded Congress to give a moratorium so there would be no drilling off the California coast. Well, they were apparently persuasive. They had plenty of resources with which to persuade the Congress. As I understood, it was back in 1981. They persuaded Congress to give them a moratorium. Well, the recitation was such that then Florida said, Wait a minute. Those of us that are wealthy in Florida that have beach front property, we don't want drilling that might put a rig out there where we could see it off our coast. So never mind that it might provide cheaper gasoline, cheaper products, cheaper heating oil, cheaper things like that. Never mind that. We just don't want to look out from our expensive piece of property and even risk seeing a rig out there. So let's get a moratorium too. California got one. Ralph had warned that if you give California this moratorium, you will rue the day you did it. Well, the wealthy there were able to persuade no drilling off the Florida coast. They got a moratorium. Before you know it, State after State was able to use and parlay California's and Florida's moratorium into not having drilling off their coast, until we get to the present day, where there's still these moratoriums off most of our coastline that could help our Nation become completely energy independent and say adios to this tremendous transfer of wealth that has been going over to some people that just flat don't like us and some of whom have supported terrorism. So it's important to know your history. In order to know where you're going, know your history. So when we talk about this moratorium, that is what we are talking about, wealthy folks in the country that didn't want to have to risk seeing a rig, never mind that the rigs could have been required to be far enough off the coast that they could not be seen from the coastline. In Texas, we didn't have the moratorium. Louisiana didn't. So you can go down, and we did hear the stories that if you put a platform off the coast, then it's going to destroy all the fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. How terrible that would be. Well, they put the platforms out there and, lo and behold, the fish look at it as artificial reefs. Now, if you want to go fishing, a great place to go out is to the artificial reefs, which the fish look at them as, and they are actually just the platform that are producing. So Carter wanted it developed expeditiously. I had tremendous problems with some of the things he did, like creating the problem in Iran when he cut the legs out from under the Shah and hailed the Ayatollah as a man of peace coming in, and we have been paying the price ever since then. But here we have a majority that talks about being concerned about what they say is the little guy in America, what I would say are the hardest working people here. I have had union jobs lost in the last few years because natural gas prices were too high. It isn't helpful to keep putting our natural gas off limits. We are losing jobs that good, hardworking union workers should not have to lose to some country where they have got cheaper natural gas. Also, ANWR, the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. It is ridiculous not to drill that small area, compared to the millions of acres that would not be touched, that area where there's no wildlife, the area where there is nothing that would be disturbed, and produce that to bring a million, million and a half barrels on line. And it would not take 10 to 15 years. We have got a pipeline 74 miles away. That oil could be in the pipeline and coming this way in 2 or 3 years. All of that said, we can then use the revenue, the royalties. People talk about subsidies and this kind of this. Make them pay royalties. The bills that we were pushing in the last Congress for 2 years had significant royalties that would go and be split between the States and the Federal Government. Tremendous revenue enhancers. You have could used that for the renewable energy, you could use that to shore up the hurting infrastructure of this country without raising taxes, and it would be producing new jobs. One estimate says that if we allow the drilling in ANWR, it would immediately start producing 250,000 jobs, and we'd have 750,000 jobs by the time it was actually completed and the oil started flowing this way. I think solar, I know Boone Pickens is visionary on the idea of wind. That can help us out. But I think ultimately if we get the capacitors to ever store electricity, solar could provide all our power, and this would provide the revenue to get on the way to do that, and we could say goodbye forever to this tremendous gross transfer of wealth to countries, so many of whom don't care for us. So I appreciate my friend from Iowa yielding. I felt like as a follow-up on this discussion about energy it was very important for people to know the moratorium that will go out of existence come the end of this month, unless something is passed. And I know there are many wealthy people in the Senate, I know that there are millionaires here in the House who are really not bothered by the high gasoline prices. I hope that the Senators that are wealthy will feel and understand the pain of the hardworking Americans and not cut the legs out from under this program that could strengthen America for the next 200 years. I hope they won't cave in because the hardworking Americans in this country need the help. This is one place we can provide the help. May God bless this country. One way it can be is if we are allowed to utilize the resources with which we have already been blessed. But thank you to my friend from Iowa for yielding, and I yield back to him.

Mr. GOHMERT

Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I do appreciate the work of Chairman Peterson, and I've had numerous conversations with my friend Bart Stupak, and I know that a lot of work has been done on this bill, a lot of efforts have been made because of our concern over unfair and inappropriate speculation. And it is a problem, and it has I think been a contributor to some of the rising prices. One of the concerns some of us had is what about airlines, like Southwest Airlines, who have been able to hedge against inflation by getting these commodities contracts. And we were advised the Air Transport Association, which Southwest is a member--I don't know for sure that they support--but the Air Transport Association has come out in support of the bill and thinks it will help but it doesn't feel like it goes far enough. This is something I'm going to vote for, and I appreciate all the hard work by Chairman Peterson and my friend Bart Stupak, but we still come back to the biggest problem on prices being that there has been a tremendous increase in demand, especially through India and China, and we have not had a commensurate increase in the supply. Supply-and-demand forces are at work. No matter what we do here in Congress, we're not going to decrease the forces of supply and demand on the market. That's what we need to be doing. We need to drill here, drill OCS, drill ANWR, and you know, some people keep saying 10 or 15 years before they'd come on line. The information that I heard was that since there's a pipeline 74 miles from the area of 1002 in ANWR, we could have that coming into the country, to this part of the country, the continental, within 3 years, that we could be bringing in OCS gas and oil in a similar amount of time. That's where we need to go. I appreciate the work here, and I'm glad you're doing it and I will vote for it. But we need to increase the supply if we're going to help America. That's where the help is required. General Leave

Mr. GOHMERT

Mr. GOHMERT. I thank my friend from Iowa. And I admire so much, not just him, but also his State. And having had him be a gracious host previously, I appreciate all that Iowa is doing for the country. But Mr. Speaker, my friend from Iowa is right; there's a lot of people that know a lot about energy in east Texas where I'm from. And the fact is--and we brought this up in our Natural Resources Committee--you know, there in east Texas where I live they're drilling, they're exploring, they're producing. We're doing everything we can to provide energy for the rest of the country to use. But we're to the point now, we desperately need some help, and we need it from those States that have energy but have been sitting on it and will not help the rest of the Nation with it. Now, there are too many in this country that have to drive to survive. There's no mass transportation that is going to get them where they've got to go to keep their job. We were in a debate in Judiciary last week, and one of the Members across the aisle said, well, our Democratic Party, we're concerned about the consumers, unlike the other party. And the fact is, I know those of us on the floor, our friends, we've got some good friends across the aisle--not the ones in leadership, but across the aisle--who understand. You want to help consumers, the men and women that are just trying to keep their job so they can pay down their credit card so they can get enough gas to keep their job next month, they're needing help. And yes, we want to help the consumer, we want to help them keep their job. We want jobs to be available. But I'm talking to people that have restaurants, that have small businesses, convenient stores. They're saying their business is down about 30 percent or so. And what some of our friends in leadership across the aisle don't understand is, yes, it's nice if you never had to use fossil fuel, but it's what is used to keep the economy going right now. And I'm hoping we can drive in directions--figuratively speaking--that will allow us to get off fossil fuel someday. But what they don't seem to understand is, when you destroy an economy, when you devastate an economy, which is beginning to happen now as these energy prices are hurting people so badly, you don't help the environment. We see that in India. We see it in China. When people are worried about keeping food on their table for their family, when they're worried about providing a place to live and sleep for their family, then they believe that the environmental issues have to take a back seat because we've got to survive first. Now, the United States--I know with all the beating up that goes on with the United States, but the United States has done more globally to help clean up the world's environment in the last 30 years than any nation on Earth. You destroy our economy, you hurt this economy the way this is beginning to do and you will lose the help from the best help source in the world, and that's the United States of America. And this isn't the first time I've been proud of America; I've been proud of America my whole life. But I note that on the Natural Resources Committee that I'm on, you look at things that we've been doing in the last several months and compare that to what went on in the last Congress, when the Republican leadership was in charge. Well, I was upset with some of the things that the leadership didn't allow or didn't get done or didn't help us to do, but some of the things that were done were good. For example, we had a bill, an energy bill in the last Congress, came out of our committee, we got it passed. And it provided incentives for people to use biomass to produce electricity. Tried and true, we've got a facility down in Nacogdoches just that's coming online. People relied on the representations that there would be incentives to use biomass, like left over tree limbs, things like that, to produce electricity. In our committee, in the last months, we decided to withdraw those incentives and instead provide a bunch of money for a new study to tell us whether it's feasible. I said, we know it's feasible, just use it. It's another source of energy. We've got wind--and of course our friend, T. Boone Pickens, has been talking a great deal about that--geothermal, hydroelectricity, the solar and biomass, as I've mentioned, those are all out there for use and they need to be pursued. But in the meantime, it's fossil fuel that is driving this country and it's fossil fuel that's driving the planet. And what we end up hearing in so many of these debates, including these late-night discussions, are people that hear things and just assume, well, it's said in committee, it's said on the floor, it must be true. And so we still hear people say, if we were to start drilling in that section 1002 part of ANWR that President Jimmy Carter designated would be used for oil and gas development, you know, nearly 30 years ago, we pursue that, well, it would still be 10 or 15 years before that would be available. What's been heard more recently that people aren't saying across the aisle is--at least not in the leadership, some of our moderate friends know--but that is that actually there is a pipeline, as I understand it, 74 miles from ANWR, this section of it. And despite what you see on the news, there are no pristine mountains, there are no antelope playing or buffalo roaming or anything like, it's just basically a waste land. And what better place to drill. The technology is there to do it. But we could have that in the United States--some of us have been told it can be done within 2 to 3 years; within 3 years it could be in the United States. Do it now. The mere fact that we would go after that would tell the speculators--that some say are contributing a third to the price--it would be nice to drop the price of gasoline by over a dollar just on speculation when they see we're serious about providing our own energy. The OCS. We're hearing people say, well, it can be 10 or 15 years down the road. Others say, you know what? We're serious about this. The price of oil is so high, gas is so high, we get out there, and some think it could be produced and on its way back to us within 2 years. I mean, this stuff is right here, available for us to utilize. We've got this--and most people, those that are listening probably have never seen, but that shale being talked about in the Green River Formation up in Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, it's a thick black--looks like a black rock. It is full of what can be turned into barrels of oil, very clean oil. Now, the 2005 RAND study says that there are probably 800 billion barrels of recoverable oil in this Green River Formation of oil shale. Some of us have heard numbers more recently that actually there may be a trillion barrels of oil in the entire Middle East left. Some think we can get two to five times that much recoverable from the shale in Colorado, Utah and Wyoming. That is American energy from America for Americans, and there's no reason not to be producing that. But you look at the Outer Continental Shelf. We hear about all these acres that are not being drilled and produced. Ninety-seven percent of the Outer Continental Shelf is not leased and not being used. And as a Texan, I can remember growing up hearing people say, oh, no, if you put drilling rigs out there in the Gulf of Mexico, it will destroy all of the aquatic life that's left out in the Gulf of Mexico. And you know what? When those platforms went in out there, they looked to the fish like artificial reefs. And now, if you want to go fishing, there is no better place to go than around these platforms way out in the Gulf. Man and the aquatic life of the Gulf of Mexico are doing splendidly together. And when we hear about all this oil that is messing up beaches, most of that comes from tankers and natural ooze out of the Earth itself. When Hurricane Katrina hit the Gulf off Louisiana and Texas, most people aren't aware, but it virtually destroyed some of those platforms. But you know what? They didn't leak. That's still coming from tankers and natural ooze from the Earth itself. And I appreciate my friend from Iowa yielding because one of the things that's coming out, it seems like yesterday and today, the price of gasoline may have dropped 20 cents or so. And some people are already saying, see, we can take credit, we can back off; we don't have to drill the Outer Continental Shelf; we don't have to drill ANWR; we don't have to produce from coal to liquid, as our friend, Mr. Shimkus, talked about; we don't have to produce from the oil shale in the Green River Formation; we don't have to go after this new Haynesville formulation for natural gas--some are saying may be one of the biggest finds in history of natural gas in Louisiana and part of east Texas. Some are saying we don't have to do that anymore, we're okay, not to worry. But you go back historically, and it's like that frog in the warm water; you know, you start it with warm, and you can get it warmer and warmer. And if he gets a little antsy, you may lower the temperature so he doesn't get too antsy and jump out, and eventually you can boil him. And it seems like that's what's going on. We're to the point in American history where we can't keep funding people who fund our enemies, or as someone once said, ``we can't keep feeding the dogs that are trained to bite us.'' And I'm not calling the people that we pay for oil dogs, it's just a figure of speech that what we're doing, we're feeding people who are trained to hurt us. And that's got to stop. We have got to follow through. We have got to use an energy plan that makes us independent. And Mr. Speaker, I wouldn't have thought a year ago that I could say this in good conscience, and so I didn't, but now I can say it. I believe this Nation can be completely energy independent, where we're not having the biggest transfer of funds in the history of the world. We could be energy independent for a number of decades while we develop these alternatives. And I have some ideas. I'm hoping to file a bill this week that, if we follow through on this, could revolutionize ways to provide energy because of the way we store it. But we'll get into that later, but I'm hoping to file that this week. These are long-term goals that could make this Nation even greater than it is today as the greatest Nation in the world. But the more we become dependent on those who have funded our enemies, the more vulnerable we are. And those that thought a solution was to raid the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, there's not that much oil in the scheme of things. And when you know history like my friend from Iowa and I do, you know the Battle of the Bulge was lost by the Germans, not because it was toward the end of the war and we had worn them down--yes, it was late in the game--but they, many historians believe, could have driven the Allied Forces right to the Atlantic and North Sea if they hadn't run out of gasoline. We can't afford to get rid of our strategic reserve that may be necessary, if Iran decides to cut off the Straits of Hormuz, if we get a severe cut in our supply, we've got to be able to step up and allow our military to have what they need, and that petroleum reserve does that. So, I appreciate the gentleman from Iowa yielding. Let me mention one other thing. In the last month--I believe it may be the last thing that we've done in the Natural Resources Committee that deals with the issue of providing more of our own energy--we passed a bill--and I say ``we'' loosely because I sure voted and spoke against it; most of us walked out, we couldn't believe we were doing it. But anyway, we put the last best source of uranium in the United States off-limits. We have already put vast amounts of our coal off-limits. Now we are putting uranium off-limits. We can't keep doing that and expect to be the greatest nation in the world much longer. I think we can go on for decades as the greatest, but it takes common sense now. I know my friend from Iowa has it. I know my friend from Texas out here has it. But we have got to deal with this problem now. We can't say, well, it's dropped 20 cents; so we won't worry about it. We have got to deal with this issue now or it will devastate the economy, which will devastate the environment, and will hurt the free world, and we can't afford to do that. I appreciate my friend for yielding.

Mr. GOHMERT. I thank the gentleman for yielding. You're talking about the caribou that more than 10 times gained from where they were before. And with regard to the wolves being shot, one of the things I was surprised about when I heard that polar bears were now listed as threatened here recently was the fact, and we discussed this--it came out in debate in our Natural Resources Committee--it's acknowledged that in the last few decades we were down to 10,000 to 12,000 polar bears in the world. Now it's acknowledged universally there are over 25,000 polar bears, and somehow that caused the polar bears to now be threatened now that there are more than twice as many as there were a few decades ago. So it certainly isn't because of a lack of polar bears that the caribou are doing well. The polar bears are doing quite well themselves despite what you may hear from some of the far left folks on that issue.

Mr. GOHMERT

Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I have no additional speakers. But in the spirit with which Thurgood Marshall conducted himself, I can't help but think, as the son of a teacher, that he would be pleased if the name of the teacher that may have changed history by having him memorize part of the Constitution had her or his name entered, and if no one on the floor knows who that is, Mr. Speaker, I would ask unanimous consent for 48 hours to revise and extend my remarks so that we get the name of that teacher that helped this student, Thurgood Marshall, change history be inserted into the Congressional Record.

Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I again thank my friend from California, I thank the chairman of the committee, the ranking member of the committee, and those who have worked on this bill. I rise in support of House Concurrent Resolution 381 honoring and recognizing the dedication and achievements of Thurgood Marshall on the 100th anniversary of his birth. Thurgood Marshall, born in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 2, 1908, was the grandson of a slave. But after graduating first in his class from Howard Law School in 1933, he went on to serve as the legal director of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and argued over 30 cases before the Supreme Court of the United States. He won 29 of them, including the landmark decision Brown v. Board of Education in 1954, which held that racial segregation in public schools was unconstitutional. Thurgood Marshall, as most people know, was later nominated to the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit by President John F. Kennedy in 1961. He served there as the first African American Solicitor General from 1965 to 1967. And in 1967, he was nominated by President Johnson to be an associate justice of the Supreme Court, its first African American member. I recall the days before I took the oath as a district judge back in Texas. I was told by a retired judge who was dying of cancer that it was a good job and a noble job, but that it would be the loneliest job I had ever held. I can only imagine that would have been true for any Supreme Court Justice, but particularly true for the first African American Justice on the Supreme Court. It had to be a lonely job; yet he honored himself and he honored this country with his brilliant work. Thurgood Marshall will be remembered for the many Supreme Court decisions he had a hand in writing, including the concurring opinion in Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints v. Amos. Justice Marshall made so much in the way of contributions that are so far-reaching and still very timely today. For example, we have had the remaining Presidential candidates of both political parties express support for allowing faith-based organizations to take part in Federal social service programs. So it is worth remembering that in the Amos case Justice Marshall joined with Justice Brennan in stating that section 702(a) of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 was constitutional. That section of the Civil Rights Act has, from its inception, exempted nonprofit, private religious organizations engaged in both religious and secular nonprofit activities from title VII's prohibition on discrimination in employment on the basis of religion. If religious organizations are to be allowed to join Federal social service efforts, they must be allowed to remain religious organizations, and they can only do so if they are allowed to be free to compose themselves of individuals who share their religious world view. Justice Marshall recognized that, and so should we. He even had something to say about vouchers for education. In Witters v. Washington Department of Services for the Blind, Justice Marshall upheld a voucher program in which ``vocational assistance is provided under a program that is paid directly to the student, who transmits it to the educational institution of his or her choice.'' Justice Marshall held that such programs are constitutional where the resources ``ultimately flow to religious institutions as a result of the genuinely independent and private choices of aid recipients.'' It is also worth noting that he did allow exception to the Civil Rights Act to allow religious institutions to hire people who agreed with their religious beliefs. I would urge all of my colleagues to join me in supporting House Concurrent Resolution 381 in recognizing Justice Marshall's judicial legacy. It was profound, it was far-reaching, and it changed the country for the good. That rich legacy includes his support for the right of religious organizations to maintain their religious identity, for government voucher programs that allow individuals to exercise free and independent choices, even when those best choices or services are provided by religious organizations. It is a real honor for me to get to honor the legacy of Thurgood Marshall. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, at this time I would yield to my friend, Mr. Chabot from Ohio, such time as he may consume.

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

Mr. GOHMERT. With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GOHMERT

Mr. GOHMERT. I have no further speakers, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I thank my friend from California for his work on this bill, and thank the chairman of the committee and also the ranking members of the subcommittee and committee. I am delighted to see us conclude today our consideration of H.R. 3564 which would reauthorize the Administrative Conference of the United States. The bill we consider today was amended slightly by the Senate which required this action by us today. But I strongly urge the House to concur in the Senate's amendment today. I also urge the Appropriations Committee and the House to appropriate funds promptly to ACUS. We need this exemplary agency once again to become a living, breathing entity and reality. So why is that? As the distinguished Member from Utah (Mr. Cannon) remarked when we originally voted out the bill, and quoting from prior adage, ``The government that governs best, governs least. And when the government does govern, it should govern at its best.'' He is exactly right. That is the role of ACUS, to ensure that when the government acts, it acts at its best. The small appropriations that we historically invested in ACUS yielded us major overall savings in time and in money. ACUS consistently pinpointed ways for the government to reduce the cost it incurs and that it imposes. As we confront the specter of exploding Social Security and Medicare entitlement costs hijacking the Federal budget, we need ACUS all the more. We must do everything we can to avoid waste in our spending and to lighten the government burden on our economy. By reauthorizing and refunding ACUS, we can take important steps in that effort. I again thank the gentleman from California for his work. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. GOHMERT

Mr. GOHMERT. With that, Mr. Speaker, we would urge our colleagues to join us in this resolution's support. My friend from Ohio will be managing the next two bills, the Debbie Smith Reauthorization Act, and the one to follow. Before I finish yielding back my time, I would like to express my thanks to my friend from California, the chairman of the Judiciary Committee, the ranking member of Judiciary, as well as our chairman in Crime, Bobby Scott, on the Debbie Smith reauthorization. I will not be here to be able to speak on that, but I am so grateful we were able to keep that from being overly burdened with things that would keep it from achieving its goal which, here again, helps everybody, including the DEA agents, when we do that job properly. I'm so grateful that we're going to be able to take that up and get that done today. With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, at this time I have no other speakers. I reserve the remainder of my time.

Mr. GOHMERT. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in support of H. Con. Res. 369. This concurrent resolution does honor the men and women of the Drug Enforcement Administration on the occasion of its 35th anniversary. The Drug Enforcement Administration, or DEA, was created by President Nixon in July 1973. The DEA was established to create a single unified command to conduct ``an all-out global war on the drug menace.'' The DEA has the core mission to enforce U.S. controlled substances laws that regulate drugs such as marijuana, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, Ecstasy and controlled prescription drugs. Initially, the DEA had 1,470 special agents and a budget of less than $75 million. Its foreign presence consisted of 43 foreign offices in 31 countries. Since that time the DEA has grown substantially and is now 5,235 special agents, a budget of more than $2.3 billion, and 87 foreign offices in 63 countries. I have personally seen them at work, both here and abroad, and know that the DEA agents are on the front lines of our war on drugs. They are courageous individuals, and they are to be honored and commended. DEA special agents work to track and identify the individuals and organized crime syndicates that grow, manufacture and traffic drugs into the U.S. To accomplish that mission, the DEA manages a national drug intelligence program by cooperating with Federal, State, local and foreign officials to collect, analyze and disseminate strategic and operational drug intelligence information. The DEA and its multi- jurisdictional partners form task forces that use this intelligence to plan highly successful operations. In May, a DEA-led task force completed an investigation called ``Operation Sudden Fall'' in San Diego. This investigation resulted in the arrest of 96 individuals, including 75 San Diego State University students who were involved with the trafficking of cocaine, marijuana and Ecstasy on the university's campus. As the plague of drugs has become more pervasive, the DEA has also increased its international efforts to combat drug trafficking abroad. The DEA coordinates with the United Nations, Interpol and foreign governments to develop programs designed to reduce the availability of illicit drugs in the United States such as crop eradication, crop substitution and training of foreign officials. These international efforts bring significant results. Recently, Colombia extradited 14 members of a paramilitary and drug trafficking group to the United States to face charges of drug trafficking, support to a terrorist organization, and money laundering. In June, the DEA worked with partners in Afghanistan to conduct Operation Albatross. This effort resulted in the seizure of 262 tons of hashish, the largest of any known drug seizure in history. As H. Con. Res. 369 notes, in this decade alone, DEA agents have seized over 5,500 kilograms of heroin, 650,000 kilograms of cocaine, 2.3 million kilograms of marijuana, 13,000 kilograms of methamphetamine, almost 80 million dosage units of hallucinogens, and made over 240,000 arrests. This is a tremendous amount of poison that they have prevented from entering our fellow citizens. In supporting this resolution, I join my colleagues in, one, congratulating the DEA on the occasion of its 35th anniversary; two, honoring the heroic sacrifice of the agency's employees who have given their lives or have been wounded or injured in service of our Nation; and three, giving heartfelt thanks to all of the men and women of the DEA for their past and continued efforts to defend the American people from the scourge of illegal drugs and terrorism. With that, Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.