Gregg Harper

Mr. HARPER

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

Mr. HARPER. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, this resolution honors those brave and courageous Japanese Americans who served in the U.S. Army's 100th Infantry Battalion and 442nd Regimental Combat Team, as well as those who served in the indispensable Military Intelligence Service. The 100th Infantry Battalion fought valiantly in the treacherous Italian campaign, earning their nickname the Purple Heart Battalion because of their bravery and sacrifice. The 442nd Regimental Combat Team was formed in 1943 from Japanese Americans living in relocation camps. A week after D-day, the 100th Battalion and the 442nd were merged into a single unit, which fought heroically in Europe, as seen in their rescue of the famous ``Lost Battalion'' in France near the German border. These Japanese American units suffered enormously high casualty rates and received over 18,000 individual decorations, including 9,486 Purple Hearts. For their service in eight major campaigns in Italy and France, the 100th Infantry Battalion and the 442nd Regimental Combat Team earned eight Presidential Unit Citations. Members of the Military Intelligence Service were Japanese Americans who served this country by intercepting radio messages, translating documents, writing leaflets encouraging opposing troops to surrender, and helping our forces understand the enemy we were fighting. In fact, according to General MacArthur's intelligence officer, Charles Willoughby, the efforts of the Military Intelligence Service ``shortened the war by 2 years.'' Mr. Speaker, Second Lieutenant Daniel Inouye, who received a battlefield commission in November 1944, was one of these brave men. Gravely wounded in April 1945, Lieutenant Inouye received the Distinguished Service Cross. It is fitting and proper that our distinguished colleague in the other body sponsored this legislation, and I'm honored to speak in support of it here today. I ask my colleagues to support this resolution authorizing use of Emancipation Hall in November for this Congressional Gold Medal ceremony. House of Representatives, Committee on House Administration, Washington, DC, September 19, 2011. Hon. John Boehner, Speaker of the House, House of Representatives, The Capitol, Washington, DC. Dear Speaker Boehner: I write to formally notify you that the Committee on House Administration hereby waives further committee consideration of S. Con. Res. 28, a concurrent resolution authorizing the use of Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center for an event to award the Congressional Gold Medal, collectively, to the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and the Military Intelligence Service, United States Army, in recognition of their dedicated service during World War II, in order that the legislation may proceed expeditiously to the House floor for consideration. Sincerely, Daniel E. Lungren, Chairman. I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. HARPER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks.

Mr. HARPER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and concur in the concurrent resolution (S. Con. Res. 28) authorizing the use of Emancipation Hall in the Capitol Visitor Center for an event to award the Congressional Gold Medal, collectively, to the 100th Infantry Battalion, 442nd Regimental Combat Team, and the Military Intelligence Service, United States Army, in recognition of their dedicated service during World War II.

Mr. HARPER. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HARPER. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HARPER. I continue to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HARPER. Mr. Speaker, I have no other speakers, I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HARPER

Mr. HARPER. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Combating Autism Reauthorization Act of 2011, and I want to thank my colleagues, particularly Congressman Smith, Congressman Doyle, and Chairman Pitts, for their great work on bringing this to the forefront today. Experts estimate that one in every 110 children is diagnosed with autism. As a whole, developmental disabilities affect an increasing number of young people, and specifically students. In an effort to help provide students with exciting education and enrichment opportunities, I was honored to establish the Congressional Internship Program for Individuals With Intellectual Disabilities in 2010. Last week, 22 congressional offices, Republican and Democratic, welcomed 11 developmentally disabled students to their staffs to serve as interns for this fall. Collecting data for autism spectrum disorders and other developmental disabilities is vital to ensuring that every young person with a significant disability has the opportunity, the encouragement, and the support to become gainfully employed in an integrated setting, pursue a postsecondary education, and contribute to and engage in meaningful ways in typical community settings once they leave high school. This gives these individuals with autism hope. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.

Mr. HARPER

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

Mr. HARPER

Mr. HARPER. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 1(b) of the Rules of the Joint Committee on Printing, I hereby submit the Rules of the Joint Committee on Printing for the 112th Congress, as adopted by the Joint Committee during its organizational meeting on June 22, 2011. Joint Committee on Printing, 112th Congress rule 1.--committee rules (a) The rules of the Senate and House insofar as they are applicable, shall govern the Committee. (b) The Committee's rules shall be published in the Congressional Record as soon as possible following the Committee's organizational meeting in each odd-numbered year. (c) Where these rules require a vote of the members of the Committee, polling of members either in writing or by telephone shall not be permitted to substitute for a vote taken at a Committee meeting, unless the ranking minority member assents to waiver of this requirement. (d) Proposals for amending Committee rules shall be sent to all members at least one week before final action is taken thereon, unless the amendment is made by unanimous consent. rule 2.--regular committee meetings (a) The regular meeting date of the Committee shall be the second Wednesday of every month when the House and Senate are in session. A regularly scheduled meeting need not be held if there is no business to be considered and after appropriate notification is made to the ranking minority member. Additional meetings may be called by the Chairman, as he may deem necessary or at the request of the majority of the members of the Committee. (b) If the Chairman of the Committee is not present at any meeting of the Committee, the vice-Chairman or ranking member of the majority party on the Committee who is present shall preside at the meeting. rule 3.--quorum (a) Five members of the Committee shall constitute a quorum, which is required for the purpose of closing meetings, promulgating Committee orders or changing the rules of the Committee. (b) Three members shall constitute a quorum for purposes of taking testimony and receiving evidence. rule 4.--proxies (a) Written or telegraphic proxies of Committee members will be received and recorded on any vote taken by the Committee, except for the purpose of creating a quorum. (b) Proxies will be allowed on any such votes for the purpose of recording a member's position on a question only when the absentee Committee member has been informed of the question and has affirmatively requested that he be recorded. rule 5.--open and closed meetings (a) Each meeting for the transaction of business of the Committee shall be open to the public except when the Committee, in open session and with a quorum present, determines by roll call vote that all or part of the remainder of the meeting on that day shall be closed to the public. No such vote shall be required to close a meeting that relates solely to internal budget or personnel matters. (b) No person other than members of the Committee, and such congressional staff and other representatives as they may authorize, shall be present in any business session that has been closed to the public. rule 6.--alternating chairmanship and vice chairmanship by congresses (a) The Chairmanship and vice Chairmanship of the Committee shall alternate between the House and the Senate by Congresses: The senior member of the minority party in the House of Congress opposite of that of the Chairman shall be the ranking minority member of the Committee. (b) In the event the House and Senate are under different party control, the Chairman and vice Chairman shall represent the majority party in their respective Houses. When the Chairman and vice Chairman represent different parties, the vice Chairman shall also fulfill the responsibilities of the ranking minority member as prescribed by these rules. rule 7.--parliamentary questions Questions as to the order of business and the procedures of Committee shall in the first instance be decided by the Chairman; subject always to an appeal to the Committee. rule 8.--hearings: public announcements and witnesses (a) The Chairman, in the case of hearings to be conducted by the Committee, shall make public announcement of the date, place and subject matter of any hearing to be conducted on any measure or matter at least one week before the commencement of that hearing unless the Committee determines that there is good cause to begin such hearing at an earlier date. In the latter event, the Chairman shall make such public announcement at the earliest possible date. The staff director of the Committee shall promptly notify the Daily Digest of the Congressional Record as soon as possible after such public announcement is made. (b) So far as practicable, all witnesses appearing before the Committee shall file advance written statements of their proposed testimony at least 48 hours in advance of their appearance and their oral testimony shall be limited to brief summaries. Limited insertions or additional germane material will be received for the record, subject to the approval of the Chairman. rule 9.--official hearing record (a) An accurate stenographic record shall be kept of all Committee proceedings and actions. Brief supplemental materials when required to clarify the transcript may be inserted in the record subject to the approval of the Chairman. (b) Each member of the Committee shall be provided with a copy of the hearing transcript for the purpose of correcting errors of transcription and grammar, and clarifying questions or remarks. If any other person is authorized by a Committee Member to make his corrections, the staff director shall be so notified. (c) Members who have received unanimous consent to submit written questions to witnesses shall be allowed two days within which to submit these to the staff director for transmission to the witnesses. The record may be held open for a period not to exceed two weeks awaiting the responses by witnesses. (d) A witness may obtain a transcript copy of his testimony given at a public session or, if given at an executive session, when authorized by the Committee. Testimony received in closed hearings shall not be released or included in any report without the approval of the Committee. rule 10.--witnesses for committee hearings (a) Selection of witnesses for Committee hearings shall be made by the Committee staff under the direction of the Chairman. A list of proposed witnesses shall be submitted to the members of the Committee for review sufficiently in advance of the hearings to permit suggestions by the Committee members to receive appropriate consideration. (b) The Chairman shall provide adequate time for questioning of witnesses by all members, including minority Members and the rule of germaneness shall be enforced in all hearings notified. (c) Whenever a hearing is conducted by the Committee upon any measure or matter, the minority on the Committee shall be entitled, upon unanimous request to the Chairman before the completion of such hearings, to call witnesses selected by the minority to testify with respect to the measure or matter during at least one day of hearing thereon. rule 11.--confidential information furnished to the committee The information contained in any books, papers or documents furnished to the Committee by any individual, partnership, corporation or other legal entity shall, upon the request of the individual, partnership, corporation or entity furnishing the same, be maintained in strict confidence by the members and staff of the Committee, except that any such information may be released outside of executive session of the Committee if the release thereof is effected in a manner which will not reveal the identity of such individual, partnership, corporation or entity in connection with any pending hearing or as a part of a duly authorized report of the Committee if such release is deemed essential to the performance of the functions of the Committee and is in the public interest. rule 12.--broadcasting of committee hearings The rule for broadcasting of Committee hearings shall be the same as Rule XI, clause 4, of the Rules of the House of Representatives. rule 13.--committee reports (a) No Committee report shall be made public or transmitted to the Congress without the approval of a majority of the Committee except when Congress has adjourned: provided that any member of the Committee may make a report supplementary to or dissenting from the majority report. Such supplementary or dissenting reports should be as brief as possible. (b) Factual reports by the Committee staff may be printed for distribution to Committee members and the public only upon authorization of the Chairman either with the approval of a majority of the Committee or with the consent of the ranking minority member. rule 14.--confidentiality of committee reports No summary of a Committee report, prediction of the contents of a report, or statement of conclusions concerning any investigation shall be made by a member of the Committee or by any staff member of the Committee prior to the issuance of a report of the Committee. rule 15.--committee staff (a) The Committee shall have a staff director, selected by the Chairman. The staff director shall be an employee of the House of Representatives or of the Senate. (b) The Ranking Minority Member may designate an employee of the House of Representatives or of the Senate as the minority staff director. (c) The staff director, under the general supervision of the Chairman, is authorized to deal directly with agencies of the Government and with non-Government groups and individuals on behalf of the Committee. (d) The Chairman or staff director shall timely notify the Ranking Minority Member or the minority staff director of decisions made on behalf of the Committee. Rule 16.--committee chairman The Chairman of the Committee may establish such other procedures and take such actions as may be necessary to carry out the foregoing rules or to facilitate the effective operation of the Committee. Specifically, the Chairman is authorized, during the interim periods between meetings of the Committee, to act on all requests submitted by any executive department, independent agency, temporary or permanent commissions and committees of the Federal Government, the Government Printing Office and any other Federal entity, pursuant to the requirements of applicable Federal law and regulations.

Mr. HARPER

Mr. HARPER. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 672) to terminate the Election Assistance Commission, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. HARPER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. HARPER. I yield myself such time as I may consume. As we move forward on the difficult job of securing our Nation's financial future, the Congress will face many difficult decisions. Programs will have to be cut, and some even eliminated. All of those programs are there because someone wants them. We have to look carefully at each one and decide whether the benefit it creates is worth the cost of maintaining it. After more than 2 years of hearings, investigations and oversight, the Committee on House Administration has identified not just a program but a Federal agency that we cannot justify to the taxpayers. That agency, the Election Assistance Commission, should be eliminated. Mr. Speaker, while the House is going to be making some very difficult spending decisions in the future, this is actually a clear and easy choice. The EAC was created in 2002 by the Help America Vote Act. HAVA passed the House with a large bipartisan majority. One hundred seventy-two Republicans voted for the bill that created the EAC. Its creation was a bipartisan choice, and so should be its termination. One of the primary reasons the EAC was created was to distribute money to States to update voting equipment and voter registration systems. The EAC has accomplished that, paying out over $3 billion to States for those purposes. With our deep debt and deficit, there almost certainly will be no more money for the EAC to distribute, meaning that that function is complete. Another of the EAC's main functions, conducting research on election issues, is also complete. The agency has completed all of 19 planned election management guidelines as well as the 21 planned quick start guides. It has completed four of the five studies required under HAVA, and the fifth is tied up in an interagency controversy, making it unlikely that it will ever be finished. The EAC also maintains a clearinghouse for election officials to share experiences working with voting systems, and it operates a program to develop voluntary guidelines for voting systems, test voting systems against those guidelines, and certify that systems comply with those guidelines. Thirty-five States and territories use the Federal testing and certification system in some way to decide what voting systems their election officials can purchase and use. Unlike the grants and research programs that are now obsolete, the clearinghouse and the testing and certification programs provide continuing value for State and local election officials. Against that backdrop, we have to look at the reality of what has happened to the EAC. When it was created by HAVA, the EAC was a small agency authorized for 3 years to spend up to $10 million per year. That was 9 years ago. The agency is still there, and its last full-time, full-year appropriation was for almost $18 million. Since a staff ceiling was removed in 2007, the agency has doubled in size, and this doubling came despite the fact that many of the EAC's responsibilities were completed or diminished. The average salary at the EAC is over $100,000. It has an executive director, a chief operating officer, a chief financial officer, and an accounting director. In its budget request for 2012, the EAC proposed to spend 51.7 percent of its budget on management and administration costs. Mr. Speaker, that bears repeating. The EAC planned to spend more than half of its budget on overhead. An agency with that plan is an agency that should be eliminated. The need to eliminate the EAC is so great that the National Association of Secretaries of State, a bipartisan group, whose members have received the more than $3 billion distributed by the EAC, has passed two resolutions calling for Congress to dissolve the agency. In 2005 and again in 2010, the Secretaries of State asked us to do what I am asking this House to support today. Beyond simply being an agency with an increasing size and a dwindling purpose, the EAC has proven time and time again that what the agency knows how to do best is to be reckless and irresponsible with taxpayer dollars. In the short time I have served on the Committee on House Administration, we have learned of two different cases where legal claims were filed against the EAC for discrimination against candidates for the position of general counsel. The first case involved discrimination based on the candidate's political affiliation. The second involved discrimination based on the candidate's service in the military. Political neutrality and assistance to military and overseas voters are values the EAC should promote, not undermine. On top of that, these cases are expensive for the taxpayers. In the development of this bill, we have sought out and received a considerable amount of input from election officials and others, in hearings at the committee and other settings. That input has allowed us to improve this bill as we have moved forward. Perhaps most importantly, we added a Guidelines Review Board that gives election officials and others a formal seat at the table when voting system guidelines are developed. This board streamlines two existing boards into a single, smaller one but preserves the ability of States and local election officials to stay involved directly. Before I close, I would like to thank Chairman Hall from the Committee on Science, Space, and Technology. He has worked closely with us as a partner in developing this bill. I appreciate his efforts to improve the bill and to bring it to the floor. This bill is a careful and thoughtful measure to close down a Federal agency in a responsible way. To sustain an agency that has completed its assigned studies, dispersed its assigned grants, and fulfilled most of its mandates is the definition of irresponsibility. We haven't rushed through this process. We've held hearings. We've listened to numerous experts. We've kept and reassigned the programs that provide true value for election administrators. And now is simply the time to end the EAC and save American taxpayers at least $33 million in the next 5 years. It doesn't get any easier to find an example of wasteful government spending. If we can't do this, we might as well pack up and go home because this is as obvious as it gets. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HARPER. I yield as much time as he shall consume to the gentleman from California (Mr. Lungren), chairman of the Committee on House Administration.

Mr. HARPER. I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia, Dr. Gingrey, chairman of the Committee on House Administration's Subcommittee on Oversight.

Mr. HARPER. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Coffman), also a former Secretary of State for the State of Colorado.

Mr. HARPER. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. HARPER. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to the remaining time?

Mr. HARPER. Mr. Speaker, I find it very interesting that the statement was just made that the FEC is too political to take on the responsibilities of the EAC. That's an amazing statement in light of the fact that the EAC has been sued for political discrimination--the very agency that's supposed to take care of fairness and do things in these issues gets sued for political discrimination. So that is hardly an argument to say that it can't be transferred. We are looking at transferring the essential functions of the EAC over to the FEC with the personnel and funding that's necessary to do that job. It's a very responsible and adult thing to do to take care not only of spending issues, but we have an agency that is spending 51.7 percent of its budget on administration and management, not in program administration, not in taking care of grants, those have come and gone. So here we are in that situation of an agency that needs to be eliminated. And I want to make it clear that in no way, by eliminating the EAC, are we doing anything to repeal or have any intent to do away with HAVA. That is something that came about in a bipartisan effort, and it will remain and shall remain as we move forward. But the EAC was created and funded for a 3-year period. Nine years later, we have one of the most inefficient agencies that we will probably ever see. It is beyond tweaking and correcting to do that. I want to say that we all believe it is essential in our country that everyone has a right to vote and has access to vote and that no one be disenfranchised. In no way does that have any impact in a negative way. In fact, it will make the election process more efficient to do away with an agency like this. It is a Federal agency that has long outlived its usefulness. And if we look at the people that are on the ground in the States, the Secretaries of State in each of our States, that NASS would pass a resolution, not once, but twice, that this agency needs to be done away with--we need to follow that great advice of those that are most intimately familiar with what's going on. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this legislation.

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

Mr. HARPER

Mr. HARPER. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that when the House adjourns today, it adjourn to meet at 9:30 tomorrow for morning-hour debate, thereafter to resume its session at 11:30 a.m.

Mr. HARPER

Mr. HARPER. Mr. Speaker, on rollcall No. 243 I was unavoidably detained. Had I been present, I would have voted ``aye.''

Mr. HARPER

Mr. HARPER. I rise in opposition to the amendment.