Duncan Hunter

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume, and I will be happy to yield some time to my colleague in a minute. But I want to say to the gentleman from California (Mr. Lantos), before he leaves the floor, that he mentioned this important issue, that I know he had taken up with me and he feels is very important, to try to give what I think we could call pay parity to folks in the Guard and the Reserve. I think there is merit in his proposal. But I did want to mention that we do some meaningful things in this Defense bill in which we marked up this particular resolution. Mr. Speaker, it was not just commendations that we gave our troops. We also marked up a 4.1 percent pay raise, decreased the out-of-pocket expenses for our folks, increased the amount of money for family housing, and we did a number of things that will accrue to the benefit of our troops, both active Guard and Reserve. Having said that, Mr. Speaker, I thought one thing that I might do at this point is yield to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton) to close, and then I wanted to read the units that participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom and Operation Enduring Freedom and put on the record the folks who participated in these operations. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton), who is my partner on the Committee on Armed Services who has done so much great work.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Speaker, let me just conclude this resolution by reciting the units that participated in Operation Iraqi Freedom. From the Army: Army Forces Central Command--3rd United States Army; V Corps Command Element; 3rd Infantry Division (Mechanized); 101st Airborne Division (Air Assault); 82nd Airborne Division; 4th Infantry Division (Mechanized); Elements of the 1st Infantry Division; 10th Mountain Division, and 1st Armored Division; 2nd Armored Cavalry Regiment; 3rd Armored Cavalry Regiment; 173rd Airborne Brigade (Sep); 11th Aviation Group. From the Marine Corps: Marine Forces Central Command; 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade; 1st Marine Division; 3rd Marine Air Wing; 1st Force Service Support Group; 2nd Force Service Support Group/Marine Logistics Command; 2nd Marine Expeditionary Brigade (Task Force Tarawa); 15th, 24th, and 26th Marine Expeditionary Units. From the Navy: Naval Forces Central Command--United States 5th Fleet; Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Force; Nimitz Carrier Strike Force; Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Force; Constellation Carrier Strike Force; Kitty Hawk Carrier Strike Force; Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Force; Amphibious Task Force East; Amphibious Task Force West; Nassau Amphibious Ready Group; Tarawa Amphibious Ready Group; Iwo Jima Amphibious Ready Group; Amphibious Group 3; Maritime Prepositioning Squadrons 1, 2, and 4. From the Air Force: Air Forces Central Command--9th Air Force; 9th Air Expeditionary Task Force; 16th Air Expeditionary Task Force; and the following air expeditionary wings: 39th, 40th, 64th, 320th, 321st, 332nd, 363rd, 376th, 379th, 380th, 384th, 386th, 401st, 405th, 410th, 484th, 485th, 486th, and 487th Air Expeditionary Wing. And the following Air Expeditionary groups: 387th, 398th, 407th, 409th, 444th, 447th, 449th, 457th, 449th, 457th, 458th, and 506th. The following Expeditionary Air Support Operations Groups: 3rd, 4th, 18th, 1st Expeditionary RED HORSE Group, the 86th Contingency Response Group, 15th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron. From the United States Special Operations Command: Special Operations Command Central; 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne); 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne); 10th Special Forces Group (Airborne); 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment; 75th Ranger Regiment; 352nd Civil Affairs Command; 350th Civil Affairs Command; 304th, 308th, and 358th Civil Affairs Brigades. From the Naval Special Warfare Command: Naval Special Warfare Group One; Naval Special Warfare Group Three. From the Air Force Special Operations Command: 16th Special Operations Wing; 919th Special Operations Wing; 193rd Special Operations Wing; 720th Special Operations Group; 352nd Special Operations Group; 123rd Special Tactics Squadron; 280th Command Control Squadron. From the Coast Guard: U.S. Coast Guard Cutters Boutwell, Dallas, Walnut, Aquidneck, Adak, Wrangell, Baranof, Bainbridge Island, Grande Isle, Knight Island, Pea Island, and Sapelo. The following port security units: Port Security Units 313, 311, 309, 305. Law Enforcement Detachments 101, 202, 204, 205, 404, 406, and 411; Atlantic Strike Team Detachment; Law Enforcement Attachment; Harbor Defense Command Units 114 and 206. Operation Enduring Freedom-- From the Army: Army Forces Central Command, Combined Joint Task Force 180; 10th Mountain Division; 101st Airborne Division; and 82d Airborne Division. From the Marine Corps: Marine Forces Central Command; Commander Joint Task Force--Horn of Africa; Combined Joint Task Force 58; and the following Marine Expeditionary Units: 11th, 13th, 15th, 22nd, 26th. Detachments: 4th Marine Expeditionary Brigade. From the Navy: Navy Forces Central Command--U.S. 5th Fleet; Theodore Roosevelt Carrier Strike Force; Kitty Hawk Carrier Strike Force; Abraham Lincoln Carrier Strike Force; Enterprise Carrier Strike Force; Carl Vinson Carrier Strike Force; John C. Stennis Carrier Strike Force; John F. Kennedy Carrier Strike Force; George Washington Carrier Strike Force; Bonhomme Richard Amphibious Ready Group; Bataan Amphibious Ready Group; Peleliu Amphibious Ready Group; Wasp Amphibious Ready Group. From the Air Force: Air Forces Central Command--9th Air Force. The following Air Expeditionary task forces: the 9th and the 13th. The following Air Expeditionary Wings: 28th, 40th, 64th, 320th, 321st, 322nd, 363rd, 366th, 376th, 379th, 380th, 384th, 386th, 405th, and the 455th. The following Air Expeditionary Groups: 416th, 438th, 451st, the First Expeditionary RED HORSE Group. From the United States Special Operations Command: 5th Special Forces Group (Airborne); 3rd Special Forces Group (Airborne); 19th Special Forces Group (Airborne); 20th Special Forces Group (Airborne); 2nd Battalion, 7th Special Forces Group (Airborne); 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment; 75th Ranger Regiment; 350th Civil Affairs Command; 354th, 360th, and 403rd Civil Affairs Brigades; 310th Psychological Operations Brigade. From the Naval Special Warfare Command: Group 1 and Naval Special Warfare Group Three; 16th Special Operations Wing; 352nd Special Operations Group; 919th Special Operations Wing; 193rd Special Operations Wing; 720th Special Operations Group; and 123rd Special Tactics Squadron. Mr. Speaker, thank you for allowing us to, in the words of the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Hefley), give this thanks from a grateful Nation to the people who carried freedom to very difficult and remote parts of the world in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom. I thank the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton) for his participation.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute to say to my colleague who just spoke, and I would like to get his attention, because when the gentleman gets up on these resolutions and implies that there is somehow a political agenda behind them, it tends, I think, to do a disservice to the resolutions. This resolution came about because lots of Members, like the gentlewoman from the party of the gentleman who just spoke, have asked to put resolutions forward commending our troops and recognizing their sacrifice. The Committee on Armed Services, seeing all these resolutions being put out, with Members on the Democrat and Republican side wanting to commend this unit or that unit coming back to their country, we took all of those and we looked at them and we decided to do one large resolution that commended everyone in these operations. And we have, literally, at the end of this resolution, we have named every single American unit that participated in the operation. There is no political agenda here. This is a consolidating of all of the efforts and the input from Members of this body, Democrat and Republican, some of them for the war, presumably some against the war, who wanted to commend the people who participated in it. It is that and it is nothing more. And by implying a political agenda, the gentleman, in fact, injects a political agenda into the debate. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to my friend, the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham), who is so closely associated with that great aircraft carrier which steamed into San Diego a couple of days ago at the end of its career, the Constellation, America's Navy, along with Willy Driscoll from the Vietnam War.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Hefley), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Readiness.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I want to thank the gentlewoman and assure her that her and the gentleman from California's (Mr. Cunningham) resolution is very much embodied in what the committee produced and thank her for her great efforts. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Bartlett).

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, this amendment guts a very important aspect of national security, and that aspect is knowledge. The idea that we want to take away notice when a supercomputer is sold to one of these third-tier countries, and once again I would ask the floor staff to put up that list of so-called third-tier countries, including Communist China and a number of others which may at some point be our adversary, the idea that we want to take away our notice so that we do not know if we are transferring a supercomputer to the Osama bin Laden Construction Corporation, we want to divest ourselves of that knowledge, that makes no sense. We have a system in place which is very practical. It is a 10-day system. You simply tell, by notice, the Department of Commerce if you are going to sell a supercomputer. The President decides what a supercomputer consists of; and if you are going to sell a supercomputer to China or Pakistan or Vietnam or Algeria, you give them a 10-day notice. He sends a copy within 24 hours to the Secretary of Defense, the Secretary of State. If nobody objects, you make the sale. If 10 days expires, you go ahead and transfer this supercomputer. The other thing we have is in-use verification. We want to make sure when a supercomputer goes to China it is being used by their weather bureau, for example, not by their nuclear facilities. The only way one can tell is by sending a team and saying is that supercomputer where they said it would be? That is called in-use verification. The gentleman from California's (Mr. Dreier) amendment strikes in-use verification. The gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) joins me in opposing this amendment very strongly. I would ask the Members to look at the handout that the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Hyde) and I put out together. Please vote this amendment down and please retain notice.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton), chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism, Unconventional Threats and Capabilities. (Mr. SAXTON asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor).

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from California (Mr. Rohrabacher).

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself 30 seconds. Mr. Chairman, let me just say, the playtop system that the gentlewoman from California held up and said this would be licensed, that is not the case today. Today the case is 19,000 million theoretical operations per second. That is about 2,000. Nobody is asking for a report on that. We have taken care of that. Secondly, the heart of this is the report. If you sell to one of these controlled countries like China, you have to let the Secretary of Defense know you did it. He only has 10 days to review it. If he does not do anything, you make the sale. But the idea that we do not want to bother ourselves with knowing what we are doing makes no sense. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Hawaii (Mr. Abercrombie).

Mr. HUNTER. I yield to the gentleman from Washington.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, we have a system today which makes a great deal of sense. It says if we sell a supercomputer, and the President has a right to define what a supercomputer is, he can raise the number of millions of theoretical operations per second that define a supercomputer, but once he makes that determination, then if someone sells to what is known as a Tier III country, and that is a country that we may have great problems with, and I will ask the staff to bring down a poster that has those countries. I am talking about countries like China, India, Djibouti, other countries like that; and if you sell a supercomputer to those countries, you have to do something very simple, you just give notice. You just send a notice to the Department of Commerce; and under our law that we worked out very studiously, the Department of Commerce gives within 24 hours that notice to the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State, and they are able to scrub their list and say wait a minute, have we got a bad guy who is an end user here? Have we got a company that wants to kill Americans? Do we have somebody who is going to aid terrorists? If that is not the case and we come up with a benign end user, okay, go ahead and sell it. All we have to do is give notice 10 days before the transfer is made. And if the bureaucracy fails to act in 10 days, the trade under our present law is authorized. The gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier), and I have great respect for him and he is a great friend and he is right on many defense issues, is wrong on this one because this takes away the notice. We are a Nation that now understands that fighting terrorism means knowing things. It means intelligence. We are the country that is going to get information off driver's licenses and visas and background checks because we need information; and yet if this passes, there is no notice requirement. The gentleman from California (Mr. Dreier) says some notice requirement may be built in in the future; but when we strike title B, it takes away the notice requirement. The other thing that it takes away, it takes away what is known as end-use verification. That means when we sell a supercomputer to Communist China, and they say we are not using this for our nuclear weapons development, we are going to use this for our weather laboratories, that means we have a right to go over and check in that weather laboratory and make sure that they have not transferred it over to nuclear weapons development. The Dreier amendment strikes this, and we no longer can check on how this equipment is being used.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, how much time remains?

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time to reciprocate to my partner, the ranking member of the Committee on Armed Services, the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Skelton), and thank him for his great work on this bill, and I want to thank all the Members for their great work on this en bloc package.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Nevada (Mr. Porter). (Mr. PORTER asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I would pledge to work to see that we have a balanced result coming out of the conference and that we work with the gentleman and the other gentlemen who have spoken of this.

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from the great State of Michigan (Mr. Upton).

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I wish to assure the gentlewoman that we will work to see to it that small businesses participate robustly in rebuilding Iraq.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman is absolutely right when he went over the litany of rights and protections that are in this bill. And we had a 25-hour mark up in which members on the Committee on Armed Services had lots of time, Democrat and Republican, to look at this bill. And let me just say, this bill passed 58 to 2 out of the Committee on Armed Services. And I think if folks really thought that this totally stripped due process away from 700,000 Americans, they would not have voted for that. And it does not strip away due process. You know something, we are asking the Secretary of Defense to rebuild a system, and I think it is a system that is going to end up employing more people in the civil service because those 300,000 people in uniform who are doing the job now, because of bureaucracy, it is too tough to get through to appoint a civil servant, so it is easier to tell a sergeant, Sergeant, you go to it. The sergeant salutes, he goes and does it, and a civil service job is taken away. This is going to be a great new reform package. Now, let us get to the big picture. Just a couple of weeks ago American military folks, people coming from the air and the great Air Force, people projecting power from the sea in our Navy, people making combined arms operations with the Marines and the Army, people parachuting in with the 173rd Airborne coming into northern Iraq, the Third Armored Division moving up like a spear point up through the throat of Iraq going straight to Saddam Hussein's hideout, the great First Marine Division, the First Cav., all those Special Operators, those Special Forces, all the great men and women who supported this operation, went out and took what this Congress has given them over the last many years in terms of equipment and training and they carried out America's foreign policy, and they fought for freedom and they did a great job. This bill does our job. It replaces that equipment. It raises that pay of 4.1 percent average across the board. It helps us to fight the battle of today if we have to engage by bolstering heavy armor and bringing in new precision-guided munitions; and it also looks over the horizon to the battle we might have to fight tomorrow. Those great men and women in uniform did their job. This bill is our job. Please vote down the motion to recommit, and let us pass this bill.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Chairman, I ask unanimous consent for the time in opposition, although I am not opposed to the amendment.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. I yield to the gentleman from Oregon.