Duncan Hunter

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Well, Wally, that guy whose hat you blew up, was one of the original seven astronauts. And he was the only astronaut to have flown on all three space craft, Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo. And what is remarkable, and maybe this was caught to some degree in that movie The Right Stuff, which had a lot of Chuck Yeager in it, but also had some astronauts, was that a lot of Americans in aviation, who did not take themselves too seriously, and Wally Schirra was one of those guys and still is one of those guys, and who had a great sense of humor, did very serious things. Here is a guy who was a pilot, a naval officer, carrier-based fighter pilot and test pilot, and engaged in this very serious pursuit in which a lot of people were killed. After they came back from war, people like Richard Bong, who shot down more planes in the Pacific theater than anyone, was killed on his first test flight trying to fly a new experimental aircraft. So these Americans, like Wally, like Chuck Yeager, like others, and I think we are reminded of this in the wake of the events with Columbia, live in a world which is very dangerous, and in which a lot of their friends and colleagues have died. And in doing that, they have pushed American capability and technology, and we are able to keep ourselves free to a much further height than we could have ever achieved if we did not have these great people. So Wally Schirra is a great member of our San Diego community, and I think my colleague painted a great picture of Wally. He probably treasures that hat that you shot.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, today, along with my colleague from Colorado, Mark Udall, I am reintroducing the Renewable Fuel Equity Act of 2003. The energy crises that struck California in 2001 and resonated across the country taught us many lessons--one of which is the need for our country to expand and diversify the production of energy from renewable resources. Solar, wind, hydro power, biomass, and geothermal energy are each potentially enormous energy resources and every state has renewable resource potential. Unfortunately, existing renewable energy resources are not spread uniformly across the country. The current tax law creates regional and technological inequities by failing to provide uniform benefits for all renewable energy resources. For example, the Section 45 production tax credit, enacted in 1992, has spurred significant new investment, but it only applies to wind power facilities. Since its inception, the production tax credit has added thousands of megawatts of wind power to our electricity grid. Imagine the impact on our communities if the production tax credit was available to all renewable energy technology. Clean power production provides greater reliability for our electricity system while promoting cleaner air and water. In addition, according to the Energy Information Agency, expanding renewable power production helps reduce the risk of future price increases for electricity. Today, renewable power sources provide consumers reliable power that is cost-effective over the long run. Unfortunately, their high, initial capital costs discourages investment in renewables. Providing tax incentives for new renewable power production can make the difference. The federal production tax credit has demonstrated its effectiveness in spurring investment in new wind power generation. The Renewable Fuel Equity Act would expand this proven incentive to all of the renewable energy resources--wind, biomass, incremental hydro power, solar and geothermal. For smaller power systems, particularly those not connected to the grid, the production tax credit is not an effective stimulus. Under current law, it does not apply to off-grid systems, and it is too complex for small businesses to use. To address this situation, our bill would make a 20 percent investment tax credit available to all small renewable technologies as an alternative. Investment in new renewable power is good for the economy and the environment, and providing these tax incentives will spur new investment without cutting Treasury revenues. Studies by the National Renewable Energy Laboratory and others indicate that expanding tax incentives for new renewable power systems are likely to have negligible net costs for the Treasury. This is because renewable power plants are so capital intensive they already pay significantly higher federal income taxes on the power produced. As the 108th Congress begins the debate over a national energy policy, I believe production and investment tax credits for renewable fuel sources are an important component of any comprehensive policy. Exploiting our renewable fuels is one of our safest, cleanest and most effective ways of ensuring our nations energy independence. I hope that my colleagues will join me in supporting renewable fuel development by cosponsoring this important bill.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I yield 45 seconds to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Kline).

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 1 minute. Madam Speaker, I would just like to say that the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham), I know if he possibly could he would be here speaking for his old buddy, Sam Johnson, another great pilot and the only Mig ace from Vietnam, and a guy who really, really loves Sam Johnson. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sam Johnson), the man who is the subject of this resolution.

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, how much time do we have remaining?

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Delaware (Mr. Castle).

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself 2\1/2\ minutes. In that great book, ``The Bridges at Toko Ri,'' one of James Michener's main characters was the commander of an aircraft carrier. After the hero in the book had flown off against those bridges at Toko Ri in North Korea and been lost, he stood on the ship and he asked where does America find these men who are willing to go in the service, in this case in the U.S. Navy, who fly off these small pitching aircraft carriers, fly to a distant target, heavily defended, and if they are successful in penetrating all that flack and air cover they try to get back and find that little postage stamp out at sea and make a successful landing? That book was set against the backdrop of a war that was not widely heralded in the United States: the Korean War. It was a time when a lot of folks were focusing on having a rush-back from World War II, having families and building lives and getting jobs and building businesses; and we were not concentrating on that area of the world, that conflict. Yet a lot of Americans gave their lives. That question that was asked, where does America get these men, could just as easily have been a question about those great people that flew off the tarmac in those TAC air bases and strategic air bases or long-range air bases that flew missions over North Vietnam. Sam Johnson is one of those guys, a guy from San Antonio, Texas. Madam Speaker, it has been brought out in all this discussion of whether we should have a draft and who participates and who bears the burden and who does not bear the burden that there is a disparate burden of defending this country, and that is why I think it is important for all of us to look to Sam because he is a model of our finest citizens. And like the gentleman from California (Mr. Cunningham), the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts), and others who have been pilots, like a lot of our great veterans who have been here in this body, he embodies that call to a higher duty, a duty that is most of the time inconvenient, and some of the times dangerous, but always the most important duty that one can fulfill on behalf of this country, and that is protecting us, giving us our security. Madam Speaker, I yield 45 seconds to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Buyer).

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I yield 45 seconds to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton).

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I yield 45 seconds to the gentleman from Pennsylvania (Mr. Pitts).

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, first, I thank my colleague for that gracious gesture. How much time do we have remaining?

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I yield 45 seconds to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Culberson), another one of Sam's Texas colleagues.

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I yield 45 seconds to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Carter), another one of Sam's Texas colleagues.

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, in the wake of that eloquent statement by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton), I yield 45 seconds to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Burgess).

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I yield 45 seconds to another gentleman from Texas (Mr. Barton).

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Arkansas (Mr. Snyder) for his bipartisan gesture and great work on this particular issue. Madam Speaker, I yield 45 seconds to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Stearns). (Mr. STEARNS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling).

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I yield 45 seconds to the distinguished gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Ballenger).

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I yield 2\1/2\ minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Wilson) in the wake of that eloquent statement by the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hall).

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Crane).

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I yield 1\1/2\ minutes to the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Granger), and this was at the request of the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sam Johnson), that we have the best-looking Texans go first. We made a mistake with the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay), but we are going to make up for it now.

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in strong support of this resolution authored by the distinguished majority leader and gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay). It recognizes the courage and sacrifice of American military personnel held prisoner during the Vietnam conflict and especially highlights the courage and sacrifice of one of our own, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sam Johnson), a POW for 7 years. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. DeLay).

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on H. Res. 62.

Mr. HUNTER. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 62) recognizing the courage and sacrifice of those members of the United States Armed Forces who were held as prisoners of war during the Vietnam conflict and calling for a full accounting of the 1,902 members of the Armed Forces who remain unaccounted for from the Vietnam conflict.

Mr. HUNTER

Mr. HUNTER. Mr. Speaker, there is a movie that I saw recently which depicted three actors who became troubleshooters and helped to save a small town in Mexico. The name of the movie was ``The Three Amigos.'' As I recall, they had a slogan that wherever there was injustice or poverty, they would be there. In reality, in real life, there are two amigos who have organized a small task force that is called Rescue Task Force and where there are problems in the world, where people are sick or need medical help or they are victims of a crossfire in a real shooting war, the two amigos are there. In fact, they are with us today in these Chambers, Mr. Speaker. It is Gary Becks, who works on my staff, and Wendell Cutting, my chief of staff in my congressional district. Wendell is the cochairman of this task force and does it without any remuneration. They have gone to places like Albania. They were the first people into the Kosovo conflict. They went into the first refugee camp, a camp in which every single child had some type of an illness or a malady. They were the first people to distribute food and medicine. And they were the first people to go up into the very remote camps through what was basically a no-man's land where a number of nongovernmental organizations had taken rifle fire just a few days before. If you look at the outline of what Rescue Task Force does, you can look at the pictures and see Gary Becks dressing wounds in Afghanistan. You can see Wendell in the slums of Thailand teaching sanitation. You can see them both distributing help in Kosovo. You can see them establishing the first-ever dental clinic in the area of the Nicaraguan-Honduran border. Mr. Speaker, I am very proud of these two gentlemen and this organization, Rescue Task Force. They also started the program we call Hands Across the Border, where they have directed literally tons and millions of dollars' worth of medical supplies and food and toys for people who hurt, to quote the President, in Mexico. They have gone around the world. Interestingly, Mr. Speaker, a lot of us in this city are listening to people who are explaining to us why other nations in the world may not like us right now in this particular phase of our foreign policy in the Middle East and explaining that the United States needs to reach out and to educate people as to what we do and what we stand for. I would say, Mr. Speaker, that nobody reaches out as effectively nor is as good an ambassador as these folks, not only in Rescue Task Force but hundreds of American charitable organizations who bring food and medical supplies to Africa, to Afghanistan, to other vast areas of the world, very distant areas where it is obvious that they are not going to receive anything in return. In fact, if you looked at the situation in Afghanistan and you looked at the roster of nations that were supplying humanitarian help in Afghanistan, before the military operations, before we had to go in and find the al Qaeda, you will find the Americans leading the list, supplying most of the food, most of the medicine, and that is reflective of what Rescue Task Force does. I am very proud of Rescue Task Force, Mr. Speaker. I think it is representative of the goodness that this country has and the willingness of our people to reach out and give some of their resources to other people around the world with no intention to ever receive anything in return except the good feelings that come from their values, that come to anyone who reaches out to help someone in need.