Alcee Hastings

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Let me read from Mr. Dreier's House Resolution 30. You said there is established a select intelligence oversight panel of the Committee on Appropriations. The select panel shall be composed of not more than 14 Members, delegates or the resident commissioner appointed by the Speaker. The select panel shall include the chairman and ranking member of the Committee on Appropriations, the chairman and ranking member of the Committee on Defense, six additional members of the Committee on Appropriations, and four members on the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence. That is the exact same thing Mr. Obey is doing with the exception of the constitution of the number on the committee.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 2 minutes to the distinguished chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. I would first like to respond to my good friend and say to him that I am awfully glad you did not accept the recommendation of your staff member that my words be taken down with reference to the comments that you made. Let me repeat for you what I said. I said and I quote, ``Mr. Dreier just said he did not say that he supported combining these functions. And yet here is his signature on his legislation that does just that.''

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. No.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. I would be more than pleased to yield to my friend because I don't like the characterization that you put forward that I am being disingenuous by saying that you are disingenuous and that you were going to take my words down. I need time to respond to Mr. LaHood as well. He commented on the nomenclature of the intelligence committee, and his comment was that I know better. And he knows that I know that the nomenclature is difficult because he and I were on that steep learning curve, he before me, and I had to learn as well. But I can tell him that Mr. Murtha and Mr. Young know that nomenclature as well as you and I do, Ray, and you know that. If I have time at the end, I will yield. As I said before, this is a specific recommendation of the 9/11 Commission. I am proud that the House Democrats can again do more in 1 week than Republicans were able to do in the last 2\1/2\ years since the 9/11 Commission made their report. The gentleman that I have already referenced knows of what I speak. With that, I yield to my friend.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, reclaiming my time, nobody said that, Mr. Dreier.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Reclaiming my time, as I said earlier to my friend, I enjoy our banter and I can suggest to him that being in the minority is going to be a very long 2 years for you.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran), a member of the Appropriations Committee.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I would remind my good friend from San Dimas that you had 2\1/2\ years to introduce these measures, and you did nothing. The Members of the 9/11 Commission support this change. I saw one of them this morning, Lee Hamilton; and all of them are on board with the change that they recommended. But perhaps since we have had so much rhetoric, and we need some guidance for results, we can ask the author of the legislation if he would give us information on this measure. Madam Speaker, I yield 6 minutes to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), the distinguished chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, the final report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, better known as the 9/11 Commission, made several recommendations on steps that the government could take in order to prevent and prepare for future terrorist attacks. In particular, the Commission said, and I quote, ``Congressional oversight for intelligence and counter terrorism is dysfunctional. Congress should address this problem. We have considered various alternatives: A joint committee on the old model of the Joint Committee on Atomic Energy is one. A single committee, in each House of Congress, combining authorizing and appropriating authorities is another.'' End of quote. Subsequent to the report, commissioners also suggested creating a new appropriations subcommittee dealing only with intelligence matters. It is my pleasure today to see the House implement this recommendation from the 9/11 Commission. This House rules change, by creating a Select Intelligence Oversight Panel within the House Appropriations Committee, responds to the commission's recommendation by creating a new panel that is made up of members of both the Appropriations Committee and the Intelligence Committee. The Select Intelligence Oversight Panel will strengthen the oversight process by providing a mechanism for considering intelligence funding and the way appropriated funds are spent on intelligence activities from the combined perspectives of the Appropriations and Intelligence committees. The Select Intelligence Oversight Panel will be primarily responsible for reviewing and studying, including through the hearings process, the President's budget submission for intelligence and the execution of intelligence activities. The committee will also be tasked with making recommendations to the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee and to other Appropriations subcommittees on intelligence programs, projects, and activities. Moreover, this new panel will, on an annual basis, prepare a report to the Defense Appropriations Subcommittee containing budgetary and oversight observations and recommendations for use by the subcommittee in preparation of the classified annex to the Defense Appropriations Bill. I see that the Republican members of the Rules Committee, in a letter to the chair lady of that committee, are complaining that we are not allowing the committee process to work its will, and that it is unfair to the Republican side. I would say, to paraphrase Shakespeare, ``They do protest too much, methinks.'' The 9/11 Commission report was published more than 2\1/2\ years ago. Aside from sitting on their collective thumbs, what did the Republicans do on this specific recommendation? Nothing, much like what they did on the rest of the 9/11 report. Okay. Fine. The President now claims the right to open every citizen's mail without judicial approval. The President says he can listen to every citizen's phone calls without judicial approval. Oh, and read everyone's e-mails too, without judicial approval. But I don't remember those being recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. Madam Speaker, we are doing this for the security of our Nation and our people. As I said at the outset, this was in large part a recommendation of the 9/11 Commission. Now, I see my friend from California, and he is my friend, about ready to speak. And I would simply say to the ranking member, maybe you should ask the families of the 9/11 victims if they think Congress should spend another 2 years debating action and then taking none, or whether we should take action and move forward on behalf of the families affected by those terrorist attacks of 9/11 and the rest of the country that is looking for results, not rancor. No more rancor, Madam Speaker. No rhetoric, Madam Speaker. Results. That is what the American people have asked for, and that is what we will deliver. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, pursuant to section 506 of House Resolution 6, I call up the resolution (H. Res. 35) to enhance intelligence oversight authority, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased at this time to yield 4 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Texas, the chairman of the Select Committee on Intelligence, my good friend Silvestre Reyes.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, would you be so kind as to tell each side how much time remains.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, before yielding to the next speaker, I would like to ask unanimous consent that all Members be given 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H. Res. 35.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, before yielding again, I would just remind my colleagues my good friend from New Mexico says that we shouldn't merge this committee. My good friend from San Dimas, California, says that we should merge this committee, which kind of demonstrates that the Republicans are capable of falling off the same horse from both sides, all things considered.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from New Jersey, a member of the Committee on Intelligence, my good friend, Rush Holt.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 10 seconds before yielding to the distinguished gentlewoman from New York. My colleague, the ranking member, just said he did not say he supported combining these functions, and yet here is his signature on his legislation that does just that. That is what I was talking about when I said that is disingenuous. Madam Speaker, at this time I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from New York (Mrs. Maloney), my friend and classmate.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased at this time to yield 2 minutes to my classmate and very good friend, a member of the Select Committee on Intelligence that I have served with, my good friend from California (Ms. Eshoo).

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Ruppersberger), with whom I have served on the Select Committee on Intelligence as well.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Do you support the legislation that you filed?

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Pay-as-you-go was the law of the land from 1990 until 2002, paving the way for a balanced budget in the late 1990s, 4 years of budget surpluses, and bringing down the national debt by $453 billion. The Bush administration has turned a projected 10-year $5.6 billion surplus into a nearly $3 trillion deficit. America's debt has already climbed 50 percent to more than $28,000 per person, and President Bush has borrowed more from foreign nations than the previous 42 United States Presidents combined. Something has to change and that change is coming now. The pay-as- you-go budgeting with no new deficit spending is just a first step, a key first step, in reversing record budget deficits.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I would say to Mr. Ryan that the Democrats are 2 days in the majority. The Republicans were 12 years in the majority with the purse strings, and this deficit ran up on your watch. On the second day that we are here talking about what we are going to do as a first step to clean up your mess, you would complain? Cut me some slack. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Emanuel) such time as he may consume.

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased to yield 1 minute to the distinguished gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Wilson).

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Madam Speaker, at this time, I am very pleased to yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Bean). (Ms. BEAN asked and was given permission to revise and extend her remarks.)

Mr. HASTINGS of Florida. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.