Darrell Issa

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Chairman, I won't need 5 minutes.

Mr. ISSA. I yield to the gentleman from Pennsylvania.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Chairman, I can take ``yes'' for an answer. Thank you both very much. The Issa amendment simply prevents the Intelligence portion of the DOD Appropriations bill to be made public. The budget total for the National Intelligence Program is now authorized to be made public in a provision that was included in the conference report to H.R. 1. No amendments were allowed during the Conference to fix this problem. The original House-passed version of H.R. 1 did not include this provision. With so many threats to our Nation's security, it makes no sense to disclose vital information to our enemies. Traditionally, this number has remained classified for good reason. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. No, he is not withdrawing them if he claims they are accurate. They are inaccurate.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman has alleged illegal acts by the President's administration in his speech. I ask that those words be taken down.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Chairman, I am shocked. I'm shocked that this bill and this process is going forward. When we marked this bill up in the Committee on Government Reform, I was positive that it could not possibly go forward without the section on citizen enforcement being amended, reformed, or eliminated. And yet I am here today not only finding out that it is still in the bill but of the Rules Committee having had the audacity to not even allow it to be considered for amendment. Mr. Chairman, this piece of legislation is a license for an unlimited amount of suits against the government by the extreme environmental groups. In fact, this bill pays a $75,000 bounty on top of unlimited legal fees to anyone who sues the government even if, in fact, that suit is based on this body's failure to act. Yes. Lawyers will be telling us, by suing us, that we must do more, and there will be no controls. They can sue in all 92 locations around the country. They can sue for any reason. We will have to pay the bill. When they lose, too bad. When they win, they get paid for taking from us not only 100 percent of their legal fees but $75,000 on top of that. This is a license for America to be held hostage by the trial lawyers. It was deliberate. It was slipped through the committee. They said it was going to be fixed. In fact, nothing has been fixed; and we have been prevented from having an amendment on the House floor. This is undemocratic, and the Democrats know it.

Mr. ISSA

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

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, today I rise with great concern about what the Conference Report to accompany H.R. 1 does, but I am more troubled by what this report has left undone. The purported goal of H.R. 1/S. 4 was to implement all of the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Report. This conference report does not do that. Specifically, this report remains silent on one of the 9/11 Commission's vital recommendations concerning reform of congressional oversight of intelligence. As you know, Mr. Speaker, the 9/11 Commission Report recommended that Congress should either form a joint House and Senate Committee on Intelligence or that the House and Senate should consolidate their authorizing and appropriating functions for the intelligence community into one committee in each chamber. To this end, I drafted language to offer during the conference on this bill. But, from introduction to floor consideration, under a closed rule, H.R. 1 did not follow regular order. Likewise, the conference was closed to amendment and debate on all but a few provisions, congressional oversight of intelligence not being one of them. My motion would have included language in the conference report to establish a commission to study the congressional oversight of intelligence. The proposed commission would have examined the impact of the current system of congressional oversight on the intelligence community and specifically addressed at what cost to our national security is the decision not to heed the 9/11 Commission's recommendations. Unfortunately, I was blocked by the majority from offering my amendment. In fact, the majority refused to hear any proposals on intelligence oversight during the conference. The omission of any discussions regarding the 9/11 Commission's recommendations on this matter is troubling and has led to an incomplete piece of legislation that will leave America less secure. As such, this report, and our work as a Congress, is left unfinished.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, on Friday, July 27, 2007, I was absent from the House for medical reasons. Had I been present I would have voted: On rollcall No. 748--``aye''--Jackson/Lee Amendment No. 101 to H.R. 2419; on rollcall No. 749--``no''--Rangel Amendment No. 24 to H.R. 2419; on rollcall No. 750--``aye''--Boehner Amendment No. 23 to H.R. 2419; on rollcall No. 751--``aye''--Davis/Kirk Amendment No. 45 to H.R. 2419; on rollcall No. 752--``aye''--Udall Amendment No. 42 to H.R. 2419; on rollcall No. 753--``aye''--Putnam Amendment No. 60 to H.R. 2419; on rollcall No. 754--``aye''--Cooper Amendment No. 95 to H.R. 2419; on rollcall No. 755--``aye''--Motion to Recommit for H.R. 2419; on rollcall No. 756--``no''--Final Passage for H.R. 2419; on rollcall No. 757--``nay''--H. Res. 567, Conference Report on H.R. 1.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman. Mr. Chairman, this is not a debate, not a legitimate debate, about whether or not the Vice President is in one branch or the other. After all, he presides over the U.S. Senate. So if we did not decide to put the funding into this particular appropriations bill, we would have to put it in the other. This is a raw grab for power to defund an essential constitutional office, and it is wrong. And if it even comes close to passing, if it is not on a bipartisan basis defeated, the gentleman from Illinois will, in fact, have undercut the very underpinnings of the Constitution. This is an important vote. It is an important vote because how dare we, how dare we use a maneuver like this, to try to stifle any constitutional officer, including our own. I am ashamed to belong to a branch that would even consider this, and I am ashamed that the gentleman would do such a thing.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Madam Speaker, on Monday, June 25, 2007, I was absent from the House. Had I been present I would have voted: On rollcall No. 548--``yea''-- H. Res. 189--Expressing the sense of the House of Representatives that a ``Welcome Home Vietnam Veterans Day'' should be established. On rollcall No. 549--``yea''--H.R. 2546--To designate the Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Asheville, North Carolina, as the ``Charles George Department of Veterans Affairs Medical Center.''

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, had I been present for votes on the evening of Thursday, June 07, 2007, I would have voted in favor of the Republican Motion to Recommit H.R. 65, and against final passage of H.R. 65, the Lumbee Recognition Act.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Madam Speaker, I rise today to honor the 30 years of exemplary service that COL Stewart Navarre of the United States Marine Corps has given to this great country. Colonel Navarre has served in many capacities since graduating Marine Corps Basic School in 1977. He served as Rifle Platoon Commander and Commanding Officer and as the Commander of the Fifth Marine Regiment in Iraq. In 2004 and 2005 he oversaw and coordinated the training and operations of the Iraqi Army and Police in the Marine sector of Iraq. Colonel Navarre is currently assigned to Camp Pendleton where he lives with his wife, Yana Lahanis. As Chief of Staff for all Marine Corps installations west of the Mississippi River, he is a trusted advisor and true advocate of our troops. Over the years he has selflessly dedicated his life to injured Marines and their families by promoting community involvement, assistance for disabled Veterans, and support to troop family members. In his 30 years of military service Colonel Navarre has proven himself an able and willing leader. He has received the Legion of Merit, an award given for exceptional service in a time of war or peace. He also received the Defense Meritorious Service Medal, the third highest peacetime defense award. On behalf of the people of the United States, whom Colonel Navarre spent a career serving, I thank him for his service and commitment to the defense of our Nation.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Madam Chairman, I thank the ranking member, and I thank the chairman for what we were able to accomplish during the markup. But I come to the House floor knowing that in fact in a few short minutes, an hour or so, our Members will vote not knowing what is in this bill. Oh, they will hear us talking in unclassified terms about the fact that HUMINT, contrary to the last speaker, is being cut in absolute dollars. The eyes and ears of human beings is being cut in this bill. Certainly, with inflation, other things are going up. But as everyone knows that has read the Iraq Study Report or the 9/11 report, it is the absence of the human resources that we have been investing in that led to our vulnerability on 9/11. And I will say that if the people on the other side of the aisle want to say we are losing this war, then they have to be willing to make a much greater commitment in the diplomatic and especially in the human resources and the above-sky resources that allow us to know what our enemy is thinking and planning before he attacks. This bill doesn't do it. This bill does, as many of the speakers have said, deal with ``bugs and bunnies.'' Now, I happen to be an advocate for global warming research. I happen to believe that the Earth is warming, and I happen to believe that CO2 is something we have to address. I serve on a committee that has overseen it, that has looked at it, that has costed it; and I will continue to do so. But I am beyond words, furious, that with no new funding we are diverting resources from finding out what bad people want to do to us, to a vague, beyond vague, an open-ended statement of over the next 30 years what is global warming maybe going to do. It is a worst case, all-possible-negatives study. It will cost ten or hundreds of millions of dollars to begin with. It will cause us to divert satellites to do the research. To be honest, the CIA doesn't just throw together a report, especially when it is this vague. We urged in committee that in fact they put reasonable amendments to this. We asked something simple: task them with the U.N.'s finding on global warming. Any committee, any group's finding. It is an open-ended go-study report. It is going to cost a lot of money, and it is going to cost American lives. But last but not least, there are unconscionable earmarks in this bill which I three times participated and voted for going to closed session so the Members would understand that pork and ``unfounded'' earmarks are in this bill; that American lives will be lost because we divert needed moneys from the human resources we need to invest in to pork projects and special interests of Members of the majority.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 9 of rule XVII, I offer a privileged motion.

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

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to clause 9 of rule XVII, I offer a privileged motion.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Mr. Speaker, this bill is not new. In fact, this is the second go-around for it, but that doesn't make it any easier. This bill, like many in the last Congress, died in the Senate. That's going to be different this time thanks to Chairman Rahall and Ranking Member Young. They considered this, reviewed to see if there were any significant changes, and quickly reported it out of committee. I want to thank them for working on a bipartisan basis to do that early on. This is important to the people of Southern California. As the gentlelady, who will speak, hopefully, next, will tell you, California has water. Unfortunately, we don't capture enough, and it isn't where we need it and when we need it. H.R. 30 is designed to bring some of that availability by significantly increasing our use of recycled water, both helping maintain the aquifer and providing safe, clean water for a multitude of uses for the people of Southern California. I urge the support of this bill, and I will not mention the other body again, except to say that I am looking forward to this early passage turning into an early signature by the President.

Mr. ISSA

Mr. ISSA. Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of H. Res. 125 and join with my colleagues in denouncing Hezbollah for employing the use and the tactic of placing weapons, defensive and offensive, in the midst of communities in which innocent civilians live. I also associate myself with the previous speaker, though, in saying that we have to go beyond a narrow issue of a single enemy in the Middle East. The use of human shields in the Middle East is unfortunately widespread, not just by the cancer that grows, that is known as Hezbollah in Lebanon, but also throughout the region. On this point, I would like to give credit where credit is due. These pictures were taken, this one was taken in 2004, where a 13-year-old Palestinian boy named Mohammed Badwan was tied to the hood of an Israeli police jeep in the West Bank. A group of Palestinian youths had been reportedly throwing rocks at Israeli police, so the boy was taken and tied to the jeep so that they would stop throwing their rocks. On October 6, and I want to give credit where credit is due, because this has not been unanswered, on October 6, 2005, the Israel High Court of Justice, the equivalent of our Supreme Court, ruled that it was illegal for Israeli forces to use Palestinian civilians during military operations. This ruling effectively ended the officially sanctioned tactic known as neighborhood procedure, whereby Israeli soldiers would forcibly use Palestinian civilians for tasks, including entering buildings to check to see if they were booby-trapped, removing building occupants, and moving suspicious objects from roads used by the army. One of the victims of this neighborhood procedure was a 19-year-old Palestinian student who in 2002 was killed in the West Bank after troops took the young man out of his house and forced him to knock on the door of a neighboring building, where a senior Hamas fugitive was hiding. Gunfire erupted, and the student was killed. In addition to the Israeli Supreme Court, human rights group have also been recognized for their work, and I commend them. B'Tselem, Rabbis for Human Rights, and Adalah have worked extensively on these cases and brought them to the court. To the credit of the Israeli people and their court system, they have denounced it, and they have sought to stop it. The Israeli Army itself, most recently, acted swiftly to suspend a commander caught on videotape using two Palestinian youths as human shields earlier this month. In the video that has been seen around the world and covered by the Associated Press, a peace activist is heard shouting to the Israeli soldiers who have positioned two youths standing in front of their vehicle, ``You can't use them as human shields. It's against the law.'' The Israeli soldier responds, ``We are not using them as a human shield.'' ``They are standing in front of your jeep. How is that not a human shield? You are using them to protect you from stones,'' the activist retorts. ``We asked them to speak to their friends and ask them to stop throwing stones at us,'' the soldier says. Shortly after this videotape was posted, the Israeli military announced the mission commander had been relieved of operational duty following this incident, in which IDF soldiers had apparently used these civilians, and the Israeli Government acted quickly. I applaud their swift response and their efforts to make this use of human shields, once and for all, stop. This morning I circulated a Dear Colleague via e-mail with links to these videos and news stories. I encourage my colleagues to take a look at these articles and efforts under way to stop the use of human shields. I have also issued statements that are on my Web site at www.issa.house.gov under the heading of ``Banning the use of Human Shields.'' Madam Speaker, I believe there are two sides to this. There is a difference. One side is continuing to be a cancer on the people of Lebanon. One side is continuing to use human shields with very little to stop them. The other side is taking those measures. I came here today to commend the Israeli Government for taking those measures, to ask them to continue to use the strongest methods possible to make sure that is eliminated from one side of the equation. I will support this resolution denouncing the other side of the equation that continues to use human shields.

Mr. ISSA

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

Mr. ISSA. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, we have no further speakers here today on this fine young gentleman. But, in closing, I can think of no more appropriate statement on the United States Armed Forces than to have a gentleman with a classic Irish name from Florida be honored on the same day for another post office as a gentleman born in Mexico, growing up in California, whose father was a day laborer. I think that speaks volumes about the kinds of men and women who are defending our country, not questioning anything except that their country asked for them and they have followed and, unfortunately, two have fallen. I urge passage of both of these pieces of legislation. I thank the majority for moving them in an expeditious fashion.

Mr. ISSA. Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlelady from Florida (Ms. Ginny Brown-Waite).

Mr. ISSA. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I join with my colleague in supporting this naming of the Sergeant Dennis J. Flanagan Post Office. Sergeant Flanagan grew up in Florida and attended high school there. He was active and enjoyed sports. He ran cross-country, played soccer, and was a cadet commander at the school's Civil Air Patrol squadron. He loved learning about American history and hoped that one day he would be a history professor. His commitment to military service began at an early age. He was an active member of the Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps, or Junior ROTC, where he achieved the rank of first lieutenant during his junior year of high school. He began classes in Central Florida Community College, but enlisted in the Army a week after September 11. Sergeant Flanagan was assigned to the 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Regiment, 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 101st Airborne Division out of Fort Campbell, Kentucky. He fought with the air assault infantry that led the initial attack in 2003. Wise beyond his years, he understood that victory could not be attained without action. He knew the dangers of war and believed in serving his country. After completing his first tour of duty, he re- enlisted in September of 2005 for a second tour. As an experienced soldier, he hoped he could act as a mentor for new soldiers, and he wanted to train the Iraqi Army recruits. On January 20, 2006, Sergeant Flanagan was on patrol in Iraq in his Humvee with three other U.S. soldiers and a driver when a roadside bomb, or an IED, was exploded near their vehicle. All soldiers were wearing protective body armor. However, only the driver survived the blast. Sergeant Flanagan was only 22 when he died. Today we honor the life of Sergeant Flanagan, a soldier who strongly believed in the fight for freedom. He was an American hero. Madam Speaker, I ask all Members to join with me in supporting this naming and this bill. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ISSA

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