Darrell Issa

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I urge all Members to join with me in support of H.R. 1246. This bill under consideration is critical and timely. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. I yield myself such time as I may consume. I would like to join with my colleague, Ms. Norton, in her comments just a moment ago. The President recognizes that now is the time to work on a bipartisan basis on budget autonomy for the District, recognizing that every year contracts have to be let for teachers who will go to work in late August and early September, but in fact they often do not know what their budget is going to be on October 1. So this is another area where I think Ms. Norton and I find ourselves prepared to bring legislation in a timely fashion that deals with the need to make sure that the taxes raised within the District of Columbia by the people of the District of Columbia can in fact be put toward those essential, important services that are paid for by the taxes of the people of the District. So although that isn't directly related to today's legislation, I think it's critical that we as the ultimate stewards of the Federal city recognize that we cannot run the Federal city, we cannot budget the Federal city, we cannot in fact do what mayors and city councils do as well as they do. So although I share with my colleagues that it is a responsibility the Constitution gives us, I join with my colleague, Ms. Norton, in saying that we will live up to the President's request in the budget; we will offer legislation from our committee in the next month or so, so that long before the passage of appropriations we once again have a piece of legislation before this committee that deals with a long overdue reform to the Home Rule Act, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. As chairman of the committee with oversight and responsibility over the District of Columbia, from time to time it comes to our attention that the Home Rule Act and other legislation that has governed the Federal City needs to be updated. In this case, because of the work of Delegate Holmes Norton, we became aware of a potentially dangerous flaw within existing law. On February 1, Dr. Gandhi, the longstanding District of Columbia chief financial officer, announced that he will retire on June 1. Subsequently, Ms. Norton and the Mayor both began to realize that, if they did not have a full-time and confirmed replacement by June 1, they would be without the authority to write checks; they would be without a requirement that makes the city physically work. This has been a flaw for a very long time. No city, no State, no government should have a single individual critical to the disbursement and consideration of their just debts; but that is, in fact, the way the law was written. This bill very narrowly but essentially--and, if I may say, it's long overdue--recognizes that there has to be a succession plan, a capability to fill vacancies. H.R. 1246 parallels the Federal Vacancies Reform Act and simply reaffirms a logical sequence of who may be considered to fill this vacancy for whatever period of time would be reasonable. Under our legislation, we recognize that we also mirror the Federal statute for what is, in fact, a temporary filling. I want to just close by thanking Delegate Holmes Norton. She brought this to us, realizing how critical it could be, and was the first to realize that, if Dr. Gandhi had simply had a car accident and had become infirmed, the same exact situation could have happened and could have been a crisis during an August recess or some other period of time in which Congress would have found itself unable to resolve it in a timely fashion. So I want to thank her for recognizing the potential before all others, and perhaps that's the best justification for having a Delegate represent the District of Columbia as she has so well. I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1246) to amend the District of Columbia Home Rule Act to provide that the District of Columbia Treasurer or one of the Deputy Chief Financial Officers of the Office of the Chief Financial Officer of the District of Columbia may perform the functions and duties of the Office in an acting capacity if there is a vacancy in the Office.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, the gentlelady is entitled to her opinion, but I don't believe her facts. Our information shows that, in fact, first of all, this bill only pertains to civilian personnel. It does not affect uniformed military personnel. Uniformed military personnel can be court-martialed for not living up to their financial obligations. That is certainly more than we are considering here. The fact is the numbers we presented, the numbers quoted here, represent civilian workers. Some of those civilian workers do also serve in the Reserves, and some of them are also retired individuals, but let's understand this is not about the men and women deployed in uniform. This is, in fact, about civilian workers who may have supplemental incomes from retirement, who may, in fact, also be Reserves. This is all about people who receive often more than $100,000 a year and have not made arrangements to catch up on taxes that are seriously in arrears by up to $10,000 or more. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. I yield myself 1 minute. The gentleman from California is new, and I'm sure he did not mean to disparage our intention. Our intention was, in fact, to bring accountability and, in fact, a sense of pride to the Federal workforce, one in which 96-point-some percent do pay their taxes, and of the remaining ones who do not, the vast majority has made arrangements to deal with taxes in arrears. But, Mr. Speaker, less than a year ago, I had my house robbed. I live in a low-crime neighborhood. Less than 2 percent of the homes get robbed in a given year, but the police still responded and still said, I'll do something about your home being burglarized. All we're saying here is: let's stop talking about the 97 percent who do the right thing, and let's deal with those who do not in a way that encourages them, like the IRS has, to start doing the right thing and lower that failure rate to 1 percent or less. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. At this time, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Utah (Mr. Chaffetz).

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time we have remaining?

Mr. ISSA

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

Mr. ISSA. Then I think we both ask for favorable consideration, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, we have no further requests for time, and I am prepared to close unless there are further speakers on the other side.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I now will place in the record a letter from the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee supporting the bill, but recognizing that the primary jurisdiction over this database belongs to the Ways and Means Committee, and we are responding in the affirmative for that. Committee on Ways and Means, House of Representatives, Washington, DC, April 15, 2013. Hon. Darrell Issa, Chairman, Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, Rayburn House Office Building, Washington, DC. Dear Chairman Issa, On March 20, 2013, the Committee on Oversight and Government Reform reported H.R. 1162, the Government Accountability Office Improvement Act, favorably to the House. Section 2, dealing with authority to access the National Directory of New Hires in Section 453 of the Social Security Act, touches the jurisdiction of the Committee on Ways and Means. As a result of your having consulted with the Committee concerning the provision of the bill that falls within our Rule X jurisdiction, I agree not to seek a sequential referral so that the bill may proceed expeditiously to the House floor. The Committee on Ways and Means takes this action with the mutual understanding that, by forgoing consideration of H.R. 1162 at this time, we do not waive any jurisdiction over the subject matter contained in this or similar legislation, and the Committee will be appropriately consulted and involved as the bill or similar legislation moves forward so that we may address any remaining issues that fall within our Rule X jurisdiction. The Committee also reserves the right to seek appointment of an appropriate number of conferees to any House-Senate conference involving this or similar legislation, and requests your support for such request. Finally, I would appreciate your response to this letter confirming this understanding, and would ask that a copy of our exchange of letters on this matter be included in the Congressional Record during floor consideration thereof. Sincerely, Dave Camp, Chairman. Before I recognize the next speaker, I would ask that the House take a moment to recognize the loss of life in Boston as this tragedy continues to unfold.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. As you know, the Government Accountability Office is a legislative branch agency that investigates how the Federal Government spends taxpayer dollars. Often called the ``congressional watchdog,'' the GAO investigates instances of waste, fraud, and abuse in the Federal Government. My committee has direct jurisdiction over the GAO. Congress must have current information on how Federal programs are performing in order to both legislate and effectively conduct meaningful oversight. H.R. 1162, the GAO Improvement Act, will enhance the GAO's ability to serve Congress primarily by ensuring the agency has access to key data warehoused in the executive branch. This bill ensures that the GAO has access to the National Directory of New Hires, which is used to verify eligibility for Federal programs, to detect or prevent fraud, and to identify improper payments. H.R. 1162 will ensure the GAO has the ability to obtain agency records and to administer oaths to witnesses when auditing accounts and investigating fraud. It will allow the Comptroller General to seek judicial remedy to enforce GAO's right to information under the law. GAO has an exemplary record of protecting sensitive government information, including national security documents. The committee is confident that GAO, a nonpartisan portion of the legislative branch, will continue to vigorously maintain confidentiality regarding information it obtains. I want to note that the language in this bill was included in previous versions of the DATA Act that was approved unanimously by the House in the last Congress. I want to additionally thank the ranking member, Mr. Cummings, for his partnership in this issue. No matter which of us holds the gavel, we together know that the information we base our decisions on, the information critical to the American people, has a balance of time that we must realize must be sooner and not later. The ranking member and I absolutely support this bill in its current form because we know that fresh information is critically important if we're to make our decisions well timely. With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the service of Mr. Glen Doherty, who was tragically killed on September 11, 2012 at the age of 42 in the armed assault against the U.S. diplomatic mission in Benghazi, Libya. I commend Mr. Doherty's career and offer my sincerest thanks for his dedicated service in protecting our nation. A desire to push himself and to use his talents to make genuine change in the world led Glen to join the Navy SEALs in 1995, where he served as a paramedic and sniper in the Middle East. Among other missions, his team responded to the terrorist attack on the USS Cole in 2000. Following knee reconstruction in 2001, Glen had planned on leaving the military but when our nation was attacked on September 11th, Glen decided to remain with the SEALs. Mr. Doherty twice deployed in support of Operation IRAQI FREEDOM. On his first tour, he joined the earliest Marine contingents on their march to Baghdad. He was taken from his unit for sniper duty for several days, but returned to them before they took Baghdad and continued with them to take Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit as well. Glen believed that the possibility of liberating a troubled country from a tyrant and making democracy possible for the Iraqi people was something worth risking his life. In 2005, Glen left the SEALs, but remained focused on the Middle East as a private security contractor. He worked for peace and security in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Lebanon, and other high threat areas in the region. I again offer Mr. Doherty my sincerest thanks and hope that his family and those who knew him best can find comfort in the outstanding service he gave his nation, as well as the passion and conviction that drove him into a career and life of defending others. Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues please join me in recognizing the distinguished career of Glen Doherty and his selfless sacrifice to a grateful nation.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Chairman, it is my understanding that the Office of Management and Budget submitted a list of proposed anomalies for the pending continuing resolution. Is that correct, and can you tell me the date that the Office of Management and Budget transmitted that list?

Mr. ISSA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Can you also tell me if that proposed list of anomalies included any changes to the provisions in current law regarding what is commonly called 6-day delivery and requires a level of service by the Postal Service at the 1983 level?

Mr. ISSA. I thank the gentleman.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, on February 6, the Postal Service announced a plan to move to a modified 6-day delivery schedule beginning in August. Under this plan, the Postal Service will continue high-quality delivery 6 days a week using its express and priority mail system. This will include packages and mail under that system, and will include vital medicine for our seniors. This change will enable the Postal Service to save $2 billion a year or more. As the chairman of the authorizing committee, I want to clarify that the authorizing language is consistent with a 6-day delivery provision in the CR under this system announced by the Postmaster on February 6. Specifically, this provision would not prohibit the Postal Service from implementing this plan of modified 6-day delivery service. I want to confirm further that the President, himself, had previously called for 5-day delivery. The Postmaster is maintaining 6-day delivery, but using priority and express mail to do so. This is fiscally responsible and consistent with the administration not putting an anomaly into the CR.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, today I rise in support of the Academic Competition Resolution of 2013. The resolution, which will establish a yearly academic competition in the fields of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics each year in each congressional district, will be much like the longstanding art competition, one in which individuals in the STEM areas--science, mathematics, and engineering-- will compete for their best accomplishments. Art is important; English is important. But today, our greatest shortfalls are in the areas in which these young men and women need to go, need to be interested. Nothing will more promote STEM degrees, the type we need for sciences, for our accomplishments in Silicon Valley and throughout America, than saying it's important enough by an annual competition.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize and commend the exceptional work of Donald McKinney over the course of his 11 year service as a District Representative in my Vista, California office. In that role, Don was my principal representative to the communities of Oceanside, Fallbrook, Marine Corps Base Camp Pendleton and military and veterans throughout the greater San Diego area. Don's work was exceptional throughout his tenure, and he distinguished himself as a dedicated advocate for the Marines and their family members aboard Camp Pendleton. From housing and medical care, to transportation and infrastructure, Don took up any cause he believed would improve the quality of life for our Marines and dependents. Shortly after I took office in 2001, we became aware of appalling conditions many Marine families were living in on base. The housing stock at Pendleton was worn out, some of it dated back as far as World War II, and many dwellings had mold contamination and other unsafe conditions. Don met repeatedly with base officials and over the course of many visits, carefully documented the housing conditions and assembled a binder of facts and photos. He walked miles and miles in the Pentagon halls meeting with any military or civilian leader who had a role in building or maintaining Marine housing. Don made sure that decision makers 2,000 miles away saw the pictures and understood the urgency so that it wouldn't get lost as just another line on a spreadsheet or item in a report. Marines and their families were living in these conditions, and that was unacceptable. Today, Camp Pendleton provides some of the finest housing available to servicemembers and their dependents. Much of the older family housing has been torn down and replaced and the rest fully renovated. The base now has 29 new Bachelor Enlisted Quarters buildings. Don's advocacy raised awareness within the chain of command and contributed significantly to the improvement of housing quality aboard Camp Pendleton. Don's work earned him the good-will of the Marine Commanders at Pendleton and he worked to ensure they had strong relationships with local leaders in adjacent communities. This paid dividends most recently when local, state and base officials work collaboratively to improve the flow of traffic at the Fallbrook Gate, reducing wait times to enter the base from 30 minutes to less than one minute. This small project provides a notable improvement in the quality of life for civilian and military personnel who commute to jobs on base each day. Don facilitated more than 500 hours of negotiations between the Fallbrook Public Utilities District and Camp Pendleton to bring the sides to agreement to settle water rights litigation that has been pending for more than 50 years. A final draft settlement is now awaiting final approval at Marine Corps Headquarters in Washington, DC. Finally, Don was an advocate for improved medical care for autistic military children, working to make sure they have access to the most effective treatments and to raise awareness so they can gain access to the care they need and deserve. In a last email to his colleagues, Don shared the experiences that were most meaningful over the years. Helping an injured Marine navigate a civilian bureaucracy to get a contractors license and a single mother clear an error by the Justice Department that allowed her to run a daycare center meant the most throughout his years. Along with these notable achievements, Don did all of the things our aides do on our behalf when Congress is in session and we are away from our districts--countless meetings, appearances at the local Rotary or Chamber of Commerce luncheon, awards presentations and other public appearances. I extend heartfelt thanks to Donald McKinney for his good work and exceptional service on behalf of the House of Representatives and the constituents of the 49th District.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the military service of Major General (MajGen) Melvin Spiese on the occasion of his retirement from the United States Marine Corps. I commend MajGen Spiese's career and offer my sincerest thanks for his more than 36 years of dedicated service in protecting our nation. In 1976, MajGen Spiese was commissioned via the NROTC program at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign and he began his long and successful career in the United States Marine Corps as a rifle platoon commander with 3d Battalion, 4th Marines. Nearly four decades later, MajGen Spiese retires now from his post as both Deputy Commanding General of I Marine Expeditionary Force (I MEF) and Commanding General (CG) of 1st Marine Expeditionary Brigade (1st MEB). As Deputy CG of I MEF, MajGen Spiese oversaw the daily activities of 57,000 Marines and Sailors, the largest warfighting organization in the Marine Corps. From the moment he became Deputy CG, he provided critical direction to the staff and allowed the CG of I MEF to successfully focus on his concurrent duties as Commander, Marine Forces Central Command. Simultaneously, as the CG of 1st MEB, MajGen Spiese successfully transformed the organization from concept to an operational, warfighting organization. MajGen Spiese developed establishing orders and planning documents that were firsts of their kind for Marine Expeditionary Brigades, pushed his staff to 48-month planning cycles rather than the standard 12 months, and integrated 1st MEB into major Marine Corps, Navy, and international training events such as JAVELIN THRUST with Marine Forces Reserve units, DAWN BLITZ with the Navy's Expeditionary Strike Group Three and THIRD Fleet, and IRON FIST with the Japanese Ground Self Defense Force. Through the development of the MEB Order, MEB Training Continuum, Capstone Document, and yearly I MEF Campaign Plans he leaves an established path for future Marine leaders to follow. I offer MajGen Spiese my warmest congratulations and hope that he enjoys a rich and rewarding retirement with his wife Filomena and their children D'arcy, Lindsey and MG and their grandchildren Lucy and Christian. Mr. Speaker, I ask that my colleagues please join me in recognizing the career of MajGen Melvin Spiese.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. I yield an additional 15 seconds to the gentleman.

Mr. ISSA. I yield 2 minutes to the chairman of the Rules Committee, a person very knowledgeable of how this law that the President signed came to be passed.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume to close. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Texas was right. The President signed sequestration; the President asked for sequestration; the President negotiated sequestration; and the President has had from this body alternatives to sequestration repeatedly. The minority in this body has not offered viable alternatives to sequestration. The Democratic majority in the Senate has done nothing to block sequestration.