Steny Hoyer

Mr. HOYER

Mr. HOYER. I don't want to get too personal on this, but what do you think about cutting the spending for the high-speed rail between Richmond and Washington?

Mr. HOYER. Is that a ``no''?

Mr. HOYER. I don't think I mentioned a figure on the extenders. I am pretty sure I did not, not today or, frankly, any other day, because it hasn't been finally completed by the Ways and Means Committee. As you know, they are working with the Senate Finance Committee as well, and working with Republicans. As you know, this was a bipartisan bill when it came from the Senate, Republicans supported it, and we hope it is a bipartisan bill as it leaves here. But let me say the fact is what the Senate sent us, we are working on. The process that we will consider it has not yet been finally determined, so I can't tell the gentleman exactly what that will be. But some of the things I have already mentioned will be in it, UI and COBRA, FMAP, Build America Bonds for local infrastructure programs, summer jobs programs so we can get young people to work this summer so that they will have some livelihood and can help their families who are in distress. We also, as I said, are going to deal with the SGR to ensure seniors can keep their doctors. We'll conclude provisions to close tax loopholes, crack down on outsourcing of jobs overseas and protect American jobs here at home. Those are all the things that I think will be in it. That's not necessarily an exclusive list, but that is certainly a bill that we think will be pro-business, and confirming many of the tax benefits that are given to businesses, as you well know, that we regulate, continue, including the investment tax credit so that we can encourage businesses to grow and invest and to create jobs. So that is an outline of it. This process has not yet been decided. I'm sure there will be discussions about that tomorrow with our Rules Committee chair and with the committee. Perhaps we can know at a later date.

Mr. HOYER. I think, as you know, there was a bill over from the Senate, which was bipartisan in nature, and I think that we need to move this bill before Memorial Day. I think that the committee is going to have to decide how to get that done in the fastest way possible so that many of the expiring issues do not expire, which would be very detrimental to docs and to many other people.

Mr. HOYER. I'm sure everybody listening now will be glad to hear that there is some cooperation and agreement. The gentleman and I are both strong supporters of the Iran sanction legislation. We believe that not only is the Middle East region at risk, but the international community is at risk as long as Iran is pursuing its intent to arm itself with nuclear weapons. I tell the gentleman that I have been working very closely with Mr. Berman, and it is my hope and expectation that this conference report will be reported back to us before the Memorial Day break, and it is my intention to work towards having that sent to the President before we leave here for the Memorial Day break.

Mr. HOYER

Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman from Tennessee, the chairman of the committee, for yielding. I congratulate Mr. Hall, my good friend from Texas, for his leadership. And I rise in support of the America COMPETES Act. I want to congratulate Mr. Gordon in particular. Mr. Gordon has been focused on the subject matter of this bill--innovation, entrepreneurial efforts, science, technology, math, and engineering efforts--to make our economy more competitive worldwide and more vibrant here at home. This bill creates jobs in the short term and builds a strong foundation for prosperity in the long term. That's what we need to be focusing on. That's what Americans want us to focus on. They want us to get jobs now. But they also want to have a resilient, growing economy for the future. We can accomplish both goals by expanding our support for research and development so that the United States remains the world's technology leader. This bill establishes innovative technology Federal loan guarantees for small- and medium-sized manufacturers. Those loans, which are especially needed at a time when credit is tight, will help our businesses keep pace with a changing economy, increase productivity, and hold their own with overseas competitors. By supporting innovation, as this bill does, this bill will help those businesses save and create jobs. It will also promote job growth and innovation on the regional level by creating regional innovation clusters--collections of local businesses that collaborate on emerging technology in similar fields. As Chairman Bart Gordon of the Science and Technology Committee has observed, ``Clusters can strengthen or revive a region's economy and can advance the work being done in their field by bringing their leaders together to share ideas and build off one another.'' I agree with that comment. That's why I think they're so important. However, as Mike Muro of the Metropolitan Policy Program at the Brookings Institution points out, America ``lags other nations in fostering these distributed, bottom-up systems of business development, innovation, and talent matching. The time has come,'' Mr. Muro went on, ``for America to make regional industry networks a defining aspect of the Nation's effort to catalyze the next era of high-quality job creation and growth.'' Bart Gordon and the Science and Tech Committee have done that. I congratulate them for that. It's an encouraging step that this bill does just that. In addition, the America COMPETES Act helps ensure that our workforce will meet the challenges of the 21st century economy, by investing in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. It reauthorizes and increases funding for the vital National Science Foundation, which promotes cutting-edge research by funding innovation in fields from computer science to mathematics to genomics. Madam Chair, Federal support for research is one of the best investments we can make. I congratulate Mr. Gordon, again, not only on his leadership on this bill, but on his leadership through the decades that he has served in this institution on these very issues. Federally supported research gave us GPS, the computer mouse, computer-aided design, and the Internet. There's no telling the ways in which it might shape our lives in the years to come. The legacy that Mr. Gordon will leave--unfortunately, he's leaving our midst at the end of this year, voluntarily, deciding to do some other things. I congratulate him, though, on the extraordinary contributions he's made during his years of service here. In a competitive world economy, the National Science Foundation reported that our R&D expenditure has fallen as a share of the world total, as the growing Asian economies gain a greater share. This bill can, and will, help reverse that trend. The America COMPETES Act won bipartisan support the first time Congress authorized it in 2007. I hope and expect that that bill will garner such bipartisan support that it deserves this time around. Again, in closing, Madam Chair, let me congratulate Mr. Gordon and thank Mr. Hall for his role.

Mr. HOYER

Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding. I rise in strong support of the rule on the COMPETES Act, and I will speak later on the bill itself. But I rise to pay tribute to Muftiah McCartin. Muftiah is a good friend of mine, so I want you to take this as a totally subjective analysis. I don't pretend to be objective. I think Muftiah McCartin is one of the most able people with whom I have worked during the 30 years I have been here. Muftiah came here when she was just a child 35 years ago and has served this institution extraordinarily well during that period of time. She served the Parliamentarians that I have served with myself, Bill Brown and Charlie Johnson and John Sullivan, and she did so with extraordinary skill. Our Parliamentarian's Office, for those who have the opportunity to watch us, are the truest nonpartisan, bipartisan people that we have in this institution, who give both sides advice and counsel as to how to conform to the rules and how to conduct business in the most appropriate fashion. Muftiah McCartin was a giant in that service. She cares deeply about this institution and all its Members, not from a partisan sense but from an institutional sense. She has served the American people extraordinarily well, and what an example of success she is. She came here shortly after high school, working here, and went to night school to get her undergraduate degree and completed her law degree in night school. She showed the same tenacity that warranted the private sector wanting her to come and be with them. Her service to this institution cannot be calculated in any kind of numbers of years served. Her service to this institution is measured by the commitment she made to each and every one of us and to this institution. Perhaps Terry, her husband, and her four children--her three girls and Luke--will have more time now with Muftiah because she was with us around the clock sometimes. When I first came here, we didn't have a rule that said you have to end at 12 o'clock. When I first came here in the early eighties, as Mr. Rangel will recall and Muftiah I know will recall, we sometimes went until 3 o'clock, 4 o'clock or 5 o'clock in the morning. They went home quickly and then came right back here to open the session at 9 o'clock or 10 o'clock, and of course they had to be here an hour or so earlier than that. Muftiah, we cannot possibly--if I took an hour, which I could take with my 1 minute as majority leader--but if I took that hour or if I took multiple hours, I could not express the depths of our gratitude to you or the respect we have for the professionalism that you have demonstrated in the performance of your duties and the extraordinary affection we have for you as our friend, as our colleague. And we wish you the very, very best of success in the years ahead. God bless you, and thank you.

Mr. HOYER

Mr. HOYER. I thank the Republican whip for yielding. On Tuesday, the House will meet at 12:30 p.m. for morning-hour debate and 2 p.m. for legislative business, with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m. On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for legislative business. On Friday, no votes are expected. We will consider several bills under suspension of the rules. The complete list of suspension bills will be announced by the close of business tomorrow. In addition, we will consider H.R. 5116, the America COMPETES Act.

Mr. HOYER. We are still working on the budget. I will hopefully bring that forward when it is ready, obviously when the Budget Committee considers it. As it relates to the Afghan-Pakistan supplemental, the President requested, as you know, approximately $33 billion in his budget at the beginning of the year. The Defense Department says that the money that they have will be depleted sometime this summer. It's important, obviously, therefore, that we move soon. And I hope to do that. I would hope that when we move this bill forward that we will see bipartisan support for it, obviously to support our troops in harm's way, carrying out a policy that I know, as the gentleman has observed before, the Republican whip himself and others have indicated their support of the President's policy in Afghanistan. This money for Afghanistan and Pakistan will fund those efforts. And I am hopeful when we do bring it forward that we will have bipartisan support for that piece of legislation.

Mr. HOYER. I am hopeful that that will be the case, yes.

Mr. HOYER. The committee has not acted, so I can't answer the second question per se on the 1 or 2 years. I will tell the gentleman that it is still my expectation, as Chairman Levin said, that that bill, the jobs bill with the extenders in it, will come forward within the next 2 weeks. Chairman Baucus and Chairman Levin are discussing that bill. I am hopeful that they will reach agreement and can reach agreement on a bipartisan basis in the House and in the Senate. We are working toward that end. We believe this will be an important bill for business, an important bill for job growth, and an important bill to extend some of those items that, as the gentleman knows, some of them will expire in terms of authorization either by the end of this month or by June 2.

Mr. HOYER. I would prefer that perhaps we do it for a longer period of time than 1 year. Two years would be acceptable. However, the problem, of course, is paying for things. As the gentleman knows, when these bills were considered, one of the things that the minority did with their MTR was to include more spending in and strike the pay-fors, which exacerbated the bill to the tune of about $100 billion. So I think the committee is dealing with what they can pay for. There will be some things, obviously, that we have accepted as emergencies caused by the severe economic downturn. But I think the length of time will probably be dictated by the issue of how we pay for things.

Mr. HOYER

Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 10 a.m. tomorrow, and further when the House adjourns on that day, it adjourn to meet at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 11, 2010, for morning-hour debate.

Mr. HOYER

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentlelady for yielding me this time, and I thank Mr. Shuster for helping bring this bill to the floor and thank Ms. Corrine Brown from Florida, who does such an extraordinary job. Mr. Speaker, I rise as a proud sponsor of this resolution which I have worked on for a long period of time. It is a facet of Capitol Hill that we have to pass a resolution to approve and allow the Greater Washington Soap Box Derby to hold the 69th Annual Greater Washington Soap Box Derby on the Capitol grounds on June 19. Since 1938, when Norman Rocca beat out 223 other racers to win the inaugural Washington race, soapbox derby racing has had a long history in our Nation's Capital. Over nearly seven decades, thousands of the region's young people have come to Washington to take their place in a great race and a great tradition. Whether they were racing down New Hampshire Avenue, or at the current site coasting down Capitol Hill, the event's essential ingredients have remained the same: homemade, gravity-powered cars and the spirit of competition. America's soapbox derbies have rightly been called ``the greatest amateur racing event in the world.'' The boys and girls who participate, many of them sponsored by community groups, police departments or fire departments, don't just gain value experience in building and engineering; they learn about the value of hard work and fair competition. As the Representative from Maryland's Fifth Congressional District, I am also proud to point out that my district has been the home to a string of soapbox derby champions. In 2007, Kacie Rader, a neighbor of mine from Mechanicsville, Maryland, won the Greater Washington race and went on to become the first Marylander to win the national soapbox derby title, beating out 550 other local champions. In 2008, Courtney Rayle, also from Mechanicsville, won the Greater Washington race and also went on to win at the national race in Akron, Ohio. And finally, last year, her brother Justin Rayle, made it three Greater Washington wins in a row for Maryland's Fifth Congressional District. This is not fixed, I want to tell you. These are just great kids, and we are excited about the soapbox derby. June's race will be the continuation of a proud tradition for our country and its Capital, and I thank Chairwoman Brown and Ranking Member Shuster for their support and help in bringing this resolution to the floor.

Mr. HOYER

Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I rise on behalf of myself, Representative Frank Wolf, Congresswoman Eleanor Holmes Norton, Representative Jim Moran, Representative Chris Van Hollen, and Representative Gerald Connolly to recognize James E. Bennett, the President and Chief Executive Officer of the Metropolitan Washington Airports Authority, Airports Authority, who has announced his retirement after 14 years of exceptional public service to the agency, the region, and the Nation. During his tenure at the Airports Authority, Mr. Bennett expertly guided the significant expansion and modernization of Washington Dulles International Airport and Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport, while simultaneously undertaking the challenge of managing the Dulles Toll Road and constructing the long planned Metrorail line to Dulles Airport and Loudoun County. Whether one is a visitor to either of these world-class airports or watching the construction of the Metrorail line, it is not difficult to appreciate the bold vision and many accomplishments of Jim Bennett. Reagan National and Dulles International Airports combined served a total of more than 40 million passengers in 2009. In difficult economic times, both airports retained service to all top 50 domestic markets, bringing valuable, new air service to the metropolitan Washington region. Mr. Bennett's leadership also brought to completion $3 billion of capital development projects, providing improved passenger service and enhanced ability to accommodate increased air service and passenger volume. At Dulles International, a new security mezzanine and the state-of- the-art AeroTrain, were recently put into service. These monumental improvements return Dulles International to the form and function that Architect Eero Saarinen, envisioned for this beautiful landmark when it opened in 1962. At Reagan National, Mr. Bennett guided the addition of expanded parking and completion of a new Public Safety Communications Center to expand the Airports Authority's emergency operations capabilities. In everything Jim Bennett has done, the interests of the public have been paramount. He has guided reinvestments in Washington Dulles and Reagan National Airports ensuring that these valuable facilities are equipped to serve travelers throughout the next decades, continuing to be important economic catalysts, providing jobs and business development opportunities for the region. He took on the Dulles Metrorail Project, proposing an innovative financing plan to bring transit service to Dulles Airport and the entire Dulles Corridor. The project is on budget and on schedule, indicative of Mr. Bennett's stellar management skills. This region has had the unique benefit of having had one the country's finest airport managers, as well as a consummate public servant, in Jim Bennett. We all owe him a debt of gratitude for his leadership, integrity, humility and inspiration. I ask that my colleagues join me and the National Capital region in expressing our heartfelt gratitude to Jim Bennett for his vision and legacy of transportation improvements that he has left for the region and the Nation.

Mr. HOYER

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, how much time remains?

Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I rise in opposition to this motion. I traveled throughout the Soviet Union to captive nations with many of you, and I rose in those nations and said to the leaders, You need to give your people self-determination. Many of you have said the same thing on this floor. You've said it about tyrant governments that have kept their peoples from practicing their own religions, from speaking their own languages, from adopting their own laws. You have spoken out against it. They were foreign nations, and it was easy to do. But now we talk about Puerto Rico, a territory of the United States of America. What Mr. Pierluisi seeks to do, what his Governor wants to do, what two-thirds of his legislature want to do--the senate and the house--is to give them the opportunity to exercise that self-determination. Now, on this floor, we have adopted an amendment, for which many have spoken, that we ought to give four alternatives rather than three. We've done that. There will now be four alternatives for the people of Puerto Rico on the second ballot. Let us now defeat this amendment designed only to defeat this bill. Hawaii was not made to do this. As the gentleman from Alaska, Don Young, will tell you and as he said on the floor, Alaska was not made to do this, and we did not ask that to occur in any one of the captive nations to which we spoke. Ronald Reagan did not ask for that. Let us not ask for it. Let us give an honest up-or-down vote to the people of Puerto Rico, who for 112 years have perceived themselves as a colony. Now, there are some who want statehood. There are some who want independence and sovereign status. There are some who want commonwealth. There are, perhaps, some who want a relationship with the United States somewhat like Australia has with Great Britain. As the gentleman from Puerto Rico said, do not diminish this principle, however, with the politics of the future. This will be debated when and if Puerto Rico asks for statehood. Your Republican Governor asks for a vote for this bill and against this motion to recommit. I ask my party to do the same. Give Puerto Rico its chance today.

Mr. HOYER

Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the ordering of the yeas and nays on the motion to suspend the rules and agree to House Resolution 375 be vacated, to the end that the resolution be considered as adopted in the form considered by the House on Tuesday April 27, 2010.

Mr. HOYER

Mr. HOYER. I thank the Republican whip for yielding. I observe that our former colleague is on the floor, the Governor of Puerto Rico. Congratulations to him. On Tuesday, the House will meet at 12:30 p.m. for morning-hour debate and 2 p.m. for legislative business with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m. On Wednesday and Thursday, the House will meet at 10 a.m. for legislative business. On Friday, no votes are expected in the House. We will consider several bills under suspension of the rules. The complete list of suspension bills will be announced by the close of business tomorrow. In addition, we will consider H.R. 5019, the Home Star Energy Retrofit Act of 2010.

Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman for his question, and I appreciate him yielding. As I have said before on the floor with respect to scheduling, I agree with him on both items. I think the budget is very important, and clearly the supplemental is very important, and I hope to be able to move those as soon as possible. We are working on both. I know the Appropriations Committee is working on the supplemental. I know Mr. Spratt is working on budget. So I tell my friend that I share his view of their importance, and that we hope to be able to move those to the floor within the near future. I cannot give him a date, but within the near future.

Mr. HOYER. I really don't have anything specific. I have talked to Mr. Obey. I don't have the specifics of how he is going to consider that. Obviously, that is an appropriations matter, as the gentleman well observes. I would be glad to talk to Mr. Obey specifically about how he is going to proceed and let the gentleman know.

Mr. HOYER

Mr. HOYER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 10 a.m. on Monday next, and further, when the House adjourns on that day, it adjourn to meet at 12:30 p.m. on Tuesday, May 4, 2010, for morning-hour debate.

Mr. HOYER

Mr. HOYER. I thank the gentleman from Colorado. I rise in strong support of the bill. I rise in strong support of the underlying legislation. I am pleased to join my colleague from Puerto Rico (Mr. Pierluisi) in support of the rule and the bill. I know that Mr. Pierluisi, who was elected to represent Puerto Rico in the Congress of the United States as their representative, has worked long and hard on this bill, as have so many of his predecessors. When I came to Congress, Carlos Barcelo was the representative of Puerto Rico, and he was for this. That was 30 years ago, and we're still talking about this. The gentleman from Puerto Rico and Mr. Serrano make points that I would make. Now, the gentleman who preceded me said that we are rushing this bill. This bill was reported out of committee last July, 30-8. This bill has 181 cosponsors, broad bipartisan support in this Congress. And so we have brought this bill to the floor for consideration. It offers amendments to those who are opposed to this bill. It offers amendments, frankly, that I think are extraneous to the basic premise of this bill as well. The fact of the matter is that America prides itself on being the beacon for democracy. What this bill does is celebrate democracy in Puerto Rico. I am grieved from time to time when I read that some of our fellow American citizens in Puerto Rico talk about the United States treating Puerto Rico as a colony. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm not interested in having colonies. I don't perceive and have never perceived the United States as an imperial power with colonies. I perceive the United States of America as priding itself on being supportive of self-determination, of being committed to the premise that people freely ought to be able to come together and determine their own status. That's what this legislation does. I don't think it does more than that or less than that. Unlike previous legislation, it does not say that if in fact the voters of Puerto Rico vote one way or the other, that action will automatically follow by this Congress. This Congress will then have to make a determination as to what relationship we want to have to Puerto Rico in a democratic fashion in this House and in the Senate, as should be the case. The President of the United States has said he would want to see the status of Puerto Rico resolved. I want to see the status of Puerto Rico resolved. And, yes, if the citizens of Puerto Rico, under this bill, decide that they want to remain a Commonwealth and vote not to change, that will be the conclusion. If on the other hand they decide they want to have change, then they will have the options that the United Nations has set forth for colonies to become free nations. I myself do not refer to Puerto Rico as a colony; some in Puerto Rico do. The fact of the matter is that it gives three options which are the three options sanctioned by the United Nations, and that is, for a free people to self-determine if they want to be an independent nation, or, alternatively, that they want to be a State, or, alternatively, they want to have a free association with the United States. That latter category, as I suppose similar to the relationship that England has to Australia and Great Britain or that Micronesia has, or some other entity that has its own independent laws, it's a sovereign nation, as is Canada; but the Queen of England is the head of their government. That may be somewhat like a free association. But whatever the people of Puerto Rico decide, it seems to me that I would be, as one Member, prepared to honor. I am hopeful that today, after 111 years that Mr. Serrano spoke about and that Mr. Pierluisi has talked about, that we do in fact give to the Puerto Rican people the option that they deserve to have and that our principles demand they have. I hope my colleagues will support this rule. I hope they will support the bill, and I hope they will oppose amendments that will undermine this opportunity that can be a historic opportunity, not just for the people of Puerto Rico, but for the people of the United States of America to live out its pledge to peoples that have an association with us and, indeed, the principle that we ask other nations to honor as well of self-determination. I thank the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Polis) for yielding.

Mr. HOYER

Mr. HOYER. I thank my friend for yielding. I thank Mr. Andrews for his extraordinary work on making sure that our national defense is strong and ready and that our troops are provided for as we put them in harm's way. I thank him for his leadership. I also want to thank Mr. McKeon for his leadership on the committee in helping to bring this bill to the floor. America faces a massive budget challenge, and it must be addressed. The consequences of our dangerous budgetary situation are truly wide- ranging. We all know where America's unsustainable path of debt leads. Among other things, it leads to a dramatically diminished American role in the world. History has seen time and time again great powers forced into retreat by unbearable debt. Simply stated, they did not pay attention to the bottom line. Democrats take that lesson seriously, which is why we made fiscal responsibility such a priority under President Obama. We passed the PAYGO law, which ensures that Congress pays for what it buys. We passed a health insurance reform bill that significantly cuts the deficit. President Obama has proposed a budget that freezes non-security discretionary spending, cuts the deficit by more than half by 2013, and cuts it by more than $1 trillion over the next decade. Americans need to know that every dollar in our budget is spent wisely and that none of them go to waste. We talk a lot about waste, fraud, and abuse. Administration after administration talk about it; and then as soon as they leave, we talk again about waste, fraud, and abuse. Whether it's a Republican administration or Democratic administration, we all talk about it, and then we immediately talk about it after the last administration has left. Americans need to know that their dollars are being spent correctly. That's what this bill is focused on. Defense acquisition reform is part of that work, because defense spending accounts for nearly one-fifth of our Federal budget. We took an important step last year when we passed and the President signed the Weapons Systems Acquisition Reform Act. I see we have now been rejoined by the chairman of the committee, my good friend, Ike Skelton. Chairman Skelton has been an extraordinary chairman of that committee, and there is no person in the Congress who has fought harder to make sure that the quality of life for our members of our armed services is more attended to than Chairman Ike Skelton of Missouri. I thank him for that. But he also understands that we need to spend our defense dollars smartly, without waste, and make sure that they are effective in providing our warfighters with the tools that they need but make sure that the dollars we spend to do that are done so effectively. Today, we can go a step further than we went last year toward fiscally responsible defense spending which still ensures that our troops can accomplish their mission, which is our number one objective. The IMPROVE Acquisition Act contains a number of important provisions, Mr. Chair, to eliminate waste without compromising our military effectiveness. While last year's acquisition reform went a long way towards eliminating waste in major defense acquisition programs, this bill recognizes that more than 50 percent of the Defense Department's procurement budget goes towards service contracts. As a result, the IMPROVE Acquisition Act requires rigorous accountability and clear standards for DOD's acquisition of services. The public expects no less and deserves no less in the care of their dollars. It creates a better-trained and more professional acquisition workforce, which ultimately, of course, saves us money, and it brings more responsible financial management to the Defense Department. As Chairman Skelton, who worked so hard on this bill, put it: ``This legislation will require DOD to adopt the basic management practices that are necessary for anything as complex as the acquisition system to function properly.'' I congratulate Chairman Skelton on those remarks and on his leadership. Those practices will save taxpayers, as Mr. Andrews just said, billions and billions of dollars, while getting our troops the equipment and services they require sooner--and that we want them to have. Our position in the world is dependent on the brave efforts and sacrifice of our troops. But it also depends on our demonstrating more responsibility here at home. Our long-term security rests, to a great extent, on that challenge. We need a national conversation about balancing our budget, and this bill is an important part of achieving that larger goal. I am pleased that we bring it to the floor with bipartisan support. I'm pleased that we will pass it with bipartisan support. And I congratulate both the Chair, subcommittee Chair, and ranking members for their leadership on this bill and urge my colleagues to strongly support it.

Mr. HOYER

Mr. HOYER. Mr. Speaker, for all but 11 minutes of the State of Israel's existence, it has found its foremost advocate and ally here: the United States of America. And what were those 11 minutes? That was the time it took the news of Israel's independence to travel around the world and reach the desk of President Truman, the first to recognize a new member of the world community and a new friend. Israel, President Truman said, ``has a glorious future before it--not just another sovereign nation, but as an embodiment of the great ideals of our civilization.'' Sixty two years later, as Israel marks its independence, those words have been confirmed time and again. Our alliance with Israel, and the common interests we share, run deep. But even if those common interests amounted to nothing, we would still see in Israel a reflection of deepest values and great ideals. Sixty two years ago, Israel's founders set their names to a declaration that embodied those ideals--the declaration that ended two millennia of exile for the Jewish people. It read, in part: ``THE STATE OF ISRAEL . . . will be based on freedom, justice and peace as envisaged by the prophets of Israel; it will ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex; it will guarantee freedom of religion, conscience, language, education and culture; it will safeguard the Holy Places of all religions.'' In those words, in the sprit that animates them, and in the political life that strives each day to live by them, we see our own spirit, our own struggle, our own founding promise. And those common values are at the heart of Congress's unshakeable, bipartisan unity on Israel and its security. I speak for all of my colleagues, Republicans and Democrats, when I say: the bond between our nations was powerful long before we set foot in this chamber, and it will outlast all of us. In that spirit, Congress must continue to support strong foreign aid for our ally. And we must continue to insist that regimes that threaten Israel's safety, and the world's, recognize Israel's right to exist-- and act accordingly. Few ideas in history have been more daring than the idea that the Jewish people could end generations of exile and build a thriving state, called to the highest principles of justice. Few ideas have been more hopeful, or more demanding. And few are more deserving of the world's sustaining effort.