Jack Kingston

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. In the nanny state, the liberal Democrats envision that the United States has to have Big Government sitting by your cradle when you are born and taking you to your grave when you die 75 years later or whatever. In their nanny-state vision, they are convinced that we have to pay for every step of your progress along the way. One of the things they are screaming about now is nobody will be able to go to college because the Federal Government will not be able to step in and pay for your tuition. Well, the Federal Government does have assistance for people who deserve a college education and who have worked hard for it. But in the food chain, lenders make a minimum of 9.5 percent loaning you the money. Now, most people right now are not getting 9.5 percent on their investments. What we are saying is, we are going to cut out that minimum of 9.5 percent that the lenders are getting on college education loans. Yet, again, we hear from the other side that that is a cut. I have trouble following them. I like fiction, I like crazy movies of fantasy, but they go beyond the page of what is real.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I think it is really important that if Members look at the deficit reduction package that we are looking at, it is a reform package that creates savings as opposed to the typical tax-and-spend tactics of the other party, and reform is what most of us, Democrat or Republican, have come to Washington to do. How many times do people running for Congress go to the local Rotary Club and say we have got to run government more like a business, we have got to end the duplications and the bureaucracy, we have to cut the red tape? And yet here is an opportunity to have some great bipartisan reforms, and all we are doing is getting criticism. And it is the same old broken record we hear from the Democrats that this is all about cuts. I was here when we did welfare reform, and the same people were saying that we are pushing people out in the streets, even though welfare reform has been a success, and incidentally, was signed into law by President Clinton. But when a person in today's world thinks about what companies are doing great, they think about Verizon or UPS or Starbucks or Coca-Cola or McDonald's, and they think there are a lot of things going on in the private sector. And they turn around and think what do we have in the Federal Government? FEMA, the IRS, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, the United States Postal Service, and then the local motor vehicle department. One can go into McDonald's and order food for a busload of teenagers coming back from a homecoming football game and get the food faster than they can going into the post office and getting a book of stamps. And I think it is relevant for people to realize we should not accept second best, third best, and fourth best from the United States Government. This package takes a step in that reform, and it does so by creating a lot of savings for us. I am an agriculture guy, and I think it is really important to talk about the food stamp portion. We hear time and time again, oh, the agriculture budget is too much and you guys should do something about it. Well, 60 percent of the budget is actually for food stamps. Food stamps have increased from $17.7 billion in 2001 to $35 billion today, $35 billion.

Mr. KINGSTON. The gentleman from Indiana has talked about this being a first step. I think controlling spending, fiscal responsibility is almost like daily exercise and daily diet. It cannot just be a vote once a year. It needs to be a daily exercise. There are all kinds of things that we can talk about in our multitrillion-dollar budget. Zero-based budgeting. As an appropriator I can tell you when agencies come in to us, all they talk about is the new spending. They do not ever go back to why did we originally need the money. And I will give you an example. We had a series of forest fires out West. When I was on the Interior Appropriations bill, we spent money to help react to fight the forest fires. And the next year, no fires, so we tried to take the money out of the budget. No fires, no fire money. But guess what? That was called a cut because people decided, oh, no. You are not going to go back to zero base on us. I think we should look at a Grace-type commission, an outside, a BRAC-type commission that could look at the Federal agencies and figure out which ones of them can be eliminated, where are the duplications and so forth. I think we should talk seriously about ending earmarks or at least reducing earmarks for the coming year to offset the cost of Katrina and Iraq. And then after we pass this, I believe we should go back and look at a half percent or a 1 percent or a 2 percent across- the-board decrease, because all of this has to be done year after year. Because that Federal budget, when all the good taxpayers are home sleeping at night, it continues to grow and it gets out of hand. And I just wanted to say we are hearing lots and lots of crying. And I am going to close with this because I know you have the gentleman from New Jersey and the gentlewoman from Tennessee here, but if you just think about it this way, that Medicaid, through all this screaming and yelling that we are hearing from the other side, will still grow next year by $66 billion; that is, if we get to reduce it by 0.03 percent, it will still grow by $66 billion. It is not a cut. It is not going to do all the things that most conservatives would like done, but as Mr. Pence said, this is a step in the right direction. And I thank the gentleman from Texas for your time and your leadership on these issues.

Mr. KINGSTON. $250 million more next year than we are spending this year on food stamps, Mr. Speaker. And yet only in Washington, DC, only in that fantasy world that competes with Disneyland when it comes to creating make-believe, would people call it a cut. Because what we want to do is look at the increase, and we have determined that we can reduce one-half of 1 percent of the total food stamp budget, about one- half of 1 percent. Food stamps will still increase $250 million, and yet people can go down to the floor of the House with a straight face and say that is a cut. I do not know how they do it. If I am giving my child an allowance of $10 and I am going to increase it to $15, but he wants $16, I still have not cut his allowance. I cannot get away with that back in Savannah, Georgia, but somehow the Democrat Party can do that with a straight face in Washington. If nothing else, you have to admire their nerve.

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize a friend of mine and a fellow Georgian who had the great honor of giving our opening prayer today. The Reverend Griffin Lotson is a man of great character and has served as our Guest Chaplain. Reverend Lotson has been a pastor of Sams Memorial Church of God in Christ in Crescent, Georgia, for 18 years. During that time he has also served as executive director of Sams Memorial Community Economic Development, a nonprofit organization dedicated to affording low-income citizens the opportunity to realize the American dream of purchasing a home. Reverend Lotson and Sams Memorial have been able to partner with the Federal, State and local governments to develop a multimillion-dollar housing development in Georgia. Through his hard work, families who never imagined they would be able to afford a home for their children are now achieving that dream. His success has earned him many awards. Reverend Lotson was voted 2005 Citizen of the Year by the Rotary Club of McIntosh County and was a national award winner of the 2005 Rural Leader of America, just to name a few. Reverend Lotson has been blessed in his personal life as well as in his ministry. He and his beautiful wife of 28 years, Carolyn, have three children, all of whom have bravely served this country as members of the Navy and the United States Air Force. Mr. Speaker, through his hard work and dedication, and through the gospel of Jesus Christ, Griffin Lotson has earned the respect and admiration of the members of his church, his community and his State. It is an honor to have him with us today.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Madam Speaker, I wanted to say that while I cannot stand filling up my car at $3 a gallon, like anybody else, there is one good thing about it, and that is that there are a lot of people out there thinking, well, what alternatives are there to fossil fuel energy? What other ways can we get fossil fuel out of the ground? What other ways can we buy it from other countries? We do not really like being 58 percent dependent on the Middle East for fossil fuels. So, at $3 a gallon, people have almost daily reminders: What can we come up with? Hydrogen-powered cars such as the type General Motors is working on, and they had it last week at the Capitol. They will be really up and running probably in 5 to 10 years. Very exciting. Ethanol. In Brazil, 40 percent of the cars run on ethanol. In America, only 3 percent do. There are fuel cells, there is even nuclear power. There are all kinds of things, new types of electrical cars that we need to be putting money into. The Republican Congress has put money and tax credits towards research and development so that our universities, our labs, our start- up enterprises can come up with alternative fuel sources, and I am proud that we are moving in the right direction, but we need to do it faster.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, ``Together We Can Do Better.'' That is the new motto of the Democrat Party. Well, you can judge the future by their past, and let us see how they did in the past. Social Security, take an issue. What was their solution? Still waiting. No solution. Hello Democrat Party, put it on the board. You did not like our solution? What is your better solution? Taxes? You do not like tax cuts. The government knows how to spend your money better than you do. And when tax revenues went up $94 billion because of our tax cuts creating new jobs, what did the Democrats have to say? We just do not like tax cuts. Fiscal responsibility. Now they have a chance. We know in the Committee on Appropriations they have offered $61 billion in spending increases in the last 3 years. Now is their chance to show ``we did not mean it.'' They can do better. 9/11, what was their response? Whining and pining and hand-wringing, saying, Why do they hate us? That is what we must find out. Iraq, well, let us turn Iraq over to Cindy Sheehan. She should run our foreign policy. Together we can do better? I think they ought to look at ``together we can be bitter, bitter and angry.''

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Well, the reason why I asked that before the gentleman leaves is today, in agriculture appropriations, we had probably about a 1- hour debate on the State of Texas's right to privatize part of its food stamp distribution. One of the things that is ridiculous about the proponents of this, and they are all the liberal Democrat faction, is that States should not be able to have the right to privatize something without permission of Congress, because I guess here in Washington people know more about Texas than the good folks down in Austin. I understand Pennsylvania, Florida, and New York are also looking at these privatization plans. It is just a distribution method which they found to be more effective. Madam Speaker, when I think about the private sector, which they fear so much, I think about companies like AOL and UPS and Home Depot and Cingular Wireless. When I think about the Federal Government, I think about the IRS, the Immigration Service, FEMA, and the post office. Yet here are these folks who are defending the Federal Government and saying that they should not get involved with the private sector. But that is just one amendment that we are fighting that saves taxpayers' dollars that we want to make sure that States have the right. But there are some other examples of savings that we are trying to get out of this budget. One of them was one that the gentleman from Texas and the gentlewoman from North Carolina supported, and that is the elimination of the mounted police unit here in Washington, D.C. The Capitol Police had horses for horse patrol. They were not patrolling parades or anything like this, but the horses were brought in from a 60-mile round trip every day so that they could parade around, walk around the 95-acre Capitol campus. The cost of that not only was $200,000 just to bring them in, but it was $50,000 to clean up the manure that these horses left on the Capitol grounds. Now, any casual observer of Washington knows that we have our own manure around here and we do not need horses imported so we could have more of it, but that is an example of something we have eliminated. Another thing that we eliminated from the budget was the exchanges with the historic Whaling and Trading Partners program. It is a $9 million program that was specialized for the folks in Hawaii, Massachusetts, and Alaska; and it was for competitive cultural grants to study the history of whaling, $9 million; and it was a competitive process, but it only went to three States, so there was not a heck of a lot of competition in it. Then another one is the Robert Byrd Scholarship program, $41 million. Now, the Byrd scholarship program on the surface, it sounds like a good idea, helps people go to school, it pays $1,500 for a college education. The only problem is we already have a Pell grant. Pell grants pay $4,100 to do the exact same thing. Then there is the Advanced Technology Program. The Advanced Technology Program was to spur research and development of technology in small businesses. Well, the only problem is, 35 percent of the money, and it is a $136 million program, by the way, 35 percent of the money went to Fortune 500 companies such as IBM, General Electric, and General Motors, hardly small business innovation. Then when the General Accounting Office investigated the whole Advanced Technology Program, they found that all the research dollars that were going on were already being done by the private sector, not costing the taxpayers any money, and the duplication was impossible to eliminate. I am going to yield back, because I know the gentlewoman from North Carolina wants to speak. But I want to say that in the appropriations process, the four programs that I have mentioned, we have eliminated approximately 90 such programs, duplicative, ridiculous, and unnecessary. We have fought back about $61 billion in the last 3 years of spending increases which the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey), the ranking member, and the Democrats have rallied behind year after year, $61 billion; and these are from the people who tell us we are spending too much money. I agree we are spending too much money, but their solution is to spend $61 billion more than what we are doing. So there are a lot of things that are going on in the Committee on Appropriations. We want to offset the cost of Katrina. We think the fat is in the budget to do so, and we stand behind the good work of Operation Offset. Madam Speaker, I want to thank the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling) for giving me a few minutes.

Mr. KINGSTON. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for that generous introduction. I was looking around to see who he might be talking about for a while. Before the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Neugebauer) leaves, I have a rhetorical question because I know the answer to it, but is it not true that the State of Texas is looking at privatizing part of its food stamp distribution program?

Mr. KINGSTON. And is it not also true that in doing that, you save the taxpayers money and actually have not hurt the food stamp participation level a bit?

Mr. KINGSTON. In 1996, when we passed welfare reform, there were 14 million people on welfare. The number dropped to 5 million. Still too many, but that is 9 million people who are not taking from the government, but are contributing to the government, and they are able- bodied people, who, as you said, found out working has it own rewards and have derived a lot of pleasure and satisfaction from holding a job.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I come forth today with the honor of recognizing Georgia's Armstrong Atlantic State University women's NCAA National Champion tennis team. The Armstrong Atlantic women's tennis team did an outstanding job capturing the school's third NCAA Division II National Championship in 2005, defeating BYU--Hawaii by a score of 5-3 to win the title. The No. 2-ranked Lady Pirates ended BYU--Hawaii's NCAA record of 130- match winning streak with the victory and finished a hard undefeated season of their own at 30-0. One of only 10 teams across every sport and division of the NCAA put together an undefeated campaign. AASU, who's other National Championships came in 1995 and 1996, accomplished the feat with unprecedented team depth as all six starters on the squad earned All-America honors from the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA). Junior Luisa Cowper (Sutton Coldfield, England) finished the year as the No. 3-ranked singles player in the Nation and was named the Peach Belt Conference's Player of the Year. Sophomore Dziyana Nazaruk (Minsk, Belarus) was the No. 8-ranked singles player and was named the ITA's ``Player to Watch'' in 2005. Freshman Johanna Dahlback (Hasselby, Sweden) won the clinching match in the national championship victory and was the No. 9-ranked singles player in the Nation. Juniors Caroline Grage (Hamburg, Germany) and Manuela Emmrich (Magdeburg, Germany) teamed together to make up the No. 8-ranked doubles team in the Nation, while senior Laura Peaty (Loughborough, England) teamed with Cowper to make up the No. 3-ranked doubles team in the Nation. The man who provided guidance for the women's success is Head coach Simon Earnshaw. He was named the Peach Belt Conference Coach of the Year for his efforts in earning his first National Championship. I am very proud of this team for displaying such hard work and sportsmanship throughout the season and can only hope that they might bring the National Championship title back to Georgia in 2006.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Madam Speaker, I want the previous speaker to know that I think I can get a Members tour for both of us to the White House if my friend wants to join me sometime. I will get back with the gentleman from Washington on that. I want to say in Iraq this weekend, it was a historic and very significant day: over 60 percent voter turnout to adopt a new constitution; less violence than ever before on the election compared to June; greater participation by everybody, including the Sunni minority. It is my hope that the constitution will pass and that in December we will have an election and the new government will take hold. And under that new government, their troops, of which we have trained 177,000, can start taking a bigger role in the war and then our troops can step back and draw down. Last weekend was very significant. It is too bad the press is begrudgingly only covering good stuff when it comes to Iraq, but do not let the day go by without realizing its significance. A great election, great participation, less violence, a significant step towards democracy.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, as the representative of the 48th Brigade and the 3rd Infantry Division, I have thousands of constituents in Iraq. I look each day, as most Americans do, for good news to come from that area of the world; and good news did come this weekend with their unprecedented election. This election, which had a lot of high stakes, will hopefully, when the tally is counted, ratify their constitution, which so many have worked on in the international community for so long. The election itself, though, was a great success, with an over-60 percent turnout. In over 6,000 different polling places, violence was absent. Compare that to the June election, when there was a lot more absence and a lot less participation. This Saturday was a success. Even the Sunni population, the minority population that has a lot of apprehension about this constitution, showed up in record numbers. And, remember, they boycotted the election in June. There is a lot of progress that is happening in Iraq. I hope that this constitution does pass. I hope that the elections in December are a success. I hope that the new national government takes hold and does a great job of moving this great country to democracy. America has made this possible, and America is standing behind our friends in Iraq.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I wish to include in the Record an article by Azerbaijan Ambassador to the United States Hafiz Pashayev. This was published in The Washington Times on September 11, 2005 and is a great testament to the progress made in Azervaijan toward holding peaceful and fair elections. In a recent visit to Azerbaijan as National Democratic Institute chairman, former Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said, ``Election day is important, but the months leading up to the elections are also crucial.'' She referred to the parliamentary elections to be held Nov. 6, when the citizens of Azerbaijan go to the polls to elect their representatives to parliament, or Milli Mejlis. The Bush administration views these elections are a litmus test of the Azerbaijan government's commitment to democracy. The U.S. Congress has weighed in by passing a resolution calling on Azerbaijan ``to hold orderly, peaceful, and free and fair elections in November 2005 in order to ensure the long-term growth and stability of the country.'' We are the first to recognize that independence, stability and prosperity depend on successful democratic reform. President Iham Aliyev wants an orderly transition, as our last few years of unprecedented economic growth would be jeopardized by political instability. Toward this end and to conduct elections according to international standards, the president issued an Executive Order outlining steps to be taken: 1. Allowing all political parties to organize rallies free from violence and intimidation. 2. Welcoming domestic and international election observers. 3. Providing access to media, thus ensuring fair coverage. 4. And ensuring central and regional authorities create the necessary conditions for exit polls. Among many provisions of the Order already carried out are those that concern participation in the political arena by opposition parties. There has been dialogue between ruling and opposition parties, all opposition parties may freely conduct rallies and demonstrations and, thus far, all opposition activists-including those who called for overthrow of government in October 2003--have been allowed to become candidates if they wish. During his visit to Azerbaijan at the end of August, Sen. Richard Lugar, Indiana Republican, said: ``The opposition leaders underlined that the registration process of the MP candidates went well, which is a step forward compared to the previous elections'' President Aliyev went further by warning all regional election officials not to interfere in the old Soviet fashion, when ballot-stuffmg was common. President Aliyev's insistence on free and fair elections in November is based on the idea Azerbaijan's secular government can co-exit with its Muslim traditions. Our vision is premised on the belief democratic pluralism will ensure, a peaceful outlet for dissent, eliminating the need for violent alternatives. Citizens of all ethnicities and political persuasions are free to advocate their positions peacefully. Today, Azerbaijan is a vibrant, independent state. We have faced many challenges in our young country's life: preserving our independence in a tough neighborhood; making the transition from a shattered to a market economy; building government institutions and an independent judiciary; finding a peaceful solution to our conflict with Armenia; and developing our natural resources to world markets. Throughout these difficult years, the United States has been a friend and ally of Azerbaijan. Our strategic partnership has blossomed since the attacks on America on September 11, 2001. Immediately after, the late President Heydar Aliyev visited the U.S. Embassy in Baku not only to express his condolences but to offer his full support. Today, we stand side-by-side in the global war on terrorism. Our troops proudly serve in Afghanistan and Iraq. Azerbaijan's location between Russia, Iran and Turkey, coupled with our desire to integrate into-the Euro-Atlantic community, requires that we conduct a balanced foreign policy fostering development of democratic institutions and a strong economy. Azerbaijan has come this far without tangible foreign aid and expects to continue democratic and economic development, primarily through its own resources. According to a recent survey by the International Republican Institute sponsored by USAID, an overwhelming majority of Azerbaijanis want economic and social development to be their government's priority concerns. This November, the people of Azerbaijan will elect a Parliament I believe will accelerate our transition toward democratic pluralism to match the country's unprecedented economic growth. Mr. Lugar told the press in Baku: ``I sense in Azerbaijan a yearning for building strong democratic institutions.''

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to discuss democracy and elections in Ethiopia. As this country has been a close ally of the United States in the war on terror, it is critical that we encourage their evolution from monarchy to communism to democracy. I used to live in Ethiopia as a child, and I lived there when Haile Selassie was the emperor. And even under a monarchy, Ethiopia had a lot of good things going for it. And as they have always been an ally of ours, strangely, we often forget them. Ethiopia is divided into nine states along linguistic and ethnic lines. It is a 3,000-year-old civilization which until the 1970s was under a monarchy, and then a brutal Marxist junta through him over. Civil war and famines racked the country in the 1980s. Calm finally began to return in 1991 when Meles Zenawi, who assisted in the overthrow of the junta, became president and finally prime minister 4 years later. Since that time, Ethiopia has participated in a total of three elections. That is three elections in a 3,000-year history. This past spring, Ethiopia held their second election since the introduction of multiparty politics and the first under international scrutiny. Thirty-five political parties vied for seats in the 547 seat lower house of parliament called the Council of People's Representatives. Voters also chose representatives in nine regional state parliaments that will appoint members of parliament's upper house, the Council of the Federation. Twenty-five million people registered to vote in the election. With 200,000 of those registered to vote living in villages inaccessible by roads, election officials on camels, pack animals, and boats fanned out to distribute ballots in time for the election. The National Electoral Board drafted 38 camels, 65 donkeys, 20 horses and 10 mules to carry election workers, ballots, stamps, counting sheets, and indelible ink to rural parts of a country twice the size of Texas. In the weeks leading up to the May elections, peaceful mass rallies were held by both the ruling party and opposition parties in Ethiopia's capital of Addis Ababa. At one of the rallies, 250,000 supporters of one of the main opposition parties, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy, rallied in the capital's main Meskel Square. A government rally attracted 600,000 people the day before. One voter, Solomon Aseffa, told reporters that after witnessing two public rallies in two days, democracy finally really was flourishing in Ethiopia. Another resident said that the peaceful rallies were indicative of the increasing political consciousness of the community. An Addis Ababa resident, Fitsum Argaw, urged young people to cast their votes in order to safeguard a democratic system that had been achieved through great sacrifice. During the campaign, there was unprecedented media access for the opposition. They received equal time on state-run radio and the opportunity to participate in broadcast debates. One main opposition party even launched a text messaging campaign to get out the vote. European observers praised the openness to the run-up to the elections although they admitted that they witnessed intimidating tactics by the ruling party. Despite the reports of harassment, there was a stunning 90 percent turnout of registered voters. Foreign election observers found out the worst problem had been the crowds, with some waiting for hours just to cast their ballots. A young female economics consultant called it ``a great day because I am able to vote freely and that is a new thing here in Ethiopia.'' The election results showed that while the ruling party held on to a majority, the opposition made major gains. However, opposition parties argued that the process was marred by fraud, intimidation, and violence. After the electric, Prime Minister Zenawi promptly banned all demonstrations for 1 month and assumed control of the capital police. Sadly, events spiraled out of control after the university students were arrested for defying this ban. Ultimately, 36 people were shot dead by police and thousands were arrested after protests erupted over the election results. This type of bloodshed cannot be allowed to happen again. This Sunday there is a rally scheduled to take place in Addis Ababa. Members of the main opposition parties, the Coalition for Unity and Democracy and the United Ethiopian Democratic Forces, plan to protest alleged fraud in the May 15 parliamentary elections and call for the formation of a national unity government to supervise new elections. What we want the folks in Ethiopia to know is that we are behind them in the democratic process. We know it is not perfect, as we are still working on ours; but we wish them success in this great and noble endeavor. I would like to take this time to urge peace and calm in Ethiopia. There has already been too much violence and bloodshed in the wake of these elections. However, in an ominous sign, on Monday forty-three members of the opposition were arrested ahead of Sunday's assembly and the branch offices of the opposition parties were raided and are now closed. Authorities have threatened ``severe consequences'' for any illegal acts or violence that occur during Sunday's event. Mr. Speaker, the path to democracy is never a smooth and easy process. We are seeing that now in Iraq. In Ethiopia, democracy is in its infancy and it must be nurtured along by its leaders. To that end, I would urge Prime Minister Zenawi and the Ethiopian authorities to allow this rally to occur peacefully. As pre-election rallies were held without violence and bloodshed, post-election rallies should be equally violence and bloodshed-free. Ethiopia has come so far. From a monarchy followed by suffering under Communism, Ethiopians must be given the opportunity to flourish under the greatest of systems--democracy.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, I want to say I certainly support this resolution and support all the good work of the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Deal) and the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood), and I think that this is the kind of thing that, if we cannot have more recognition of it, there would not be more success stories like the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood). I have to say to my good friend from Ohio, who was elected the same year that I was, that we have always enjoyed the great spirit of this House in terms of debate, and we know that it is people like the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood) who add to that debate and make it a lot more fun to be up here, no matter what side you are on. And because the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood) was able to get his new lung, he came out here with a lot of vim and vigor from that class of 1994, and then he got kind of quiet for a while, and I know there are many, maybe on both sides, I cannot say to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood), but who might wish you were still quiet at times. But the reality is the gentleman is back, and he is back because he was one of the fortunate miracles. We are just delighted to see the blood is flowing back in his veins and the spirit is back in his heart and the ideas and thoughts are back in his mind. Yet as we look at the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood) as a miracle, we know that there are lots of folks out there who may not be so fortunate. H. Con. Res. 178 makes it possible for others to know more about IPF, and it raises that recognition so that Congress can help its own internal education process so we can know what we can do and do a lot more studying and try to come up with what the cause is and so forth. I want to say to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Norwood), best of luck to you. We all love you and we are glad you are back, and we pray for others in your same situation. I support H. Con. Res. 178. points on bill H. Con. Res. 178: Recognizes the need to research cause of, treatment and cure for IPF; Recognizes the work of the Coalition for Pulmonary Fibrosis. Urges the President to designate an Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis Awareness Week; Over 50 bipartisan co-sponsors.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I wish to commemorate the Appling County Girls Midget All-Star Softball Team on winning the Georgia State Championship. July 24, 2005 was a day of victory for the Appling County Girls Midget All-Star Softball Team. They won the Georgia State Championship 6 to 3 over Jeff Davis County. These 11-12-year-old girls have worked tremendously hard to have an undefeated season and win the state championship. Each team member deserves to be commended on their team work and good sportsmanship. The coaches of this Midget All-Star team have spent endless hours working with this talented group of young women. The members of the winning team are Laci Bass, Brianna Black, Hannah Brazzell, Rebecca Carter, Courtney Clements, Christian Collins, Taylor Dominey, Candyce Eason, Tori Hall, Brooke Nail, Jennifer Norris, Hope Patton, Jami Scarborough, and Brooke Sikes. Coaches are: Arthur McCall, Donald Rouse, and Brian Brazzell.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Madam Speaker, we just had the opportunity this morning, some of us, to hear from the Governor of Mississippi, Haley Barbour. What a refreshing example of leadership Mr. Barbour has offered our country. Unfortunately, as compared to the Governor of his neighboring State, Louisiana, faced with the same disasters, faced with loss of life, faced with billions of dollars in property damage, Mr. Barbour did not take the opportunity to bash Washington, to whine about what the Federal Government did or did not do; but, rather, on a local level, with folks like the mayor of Biloxi and the mayors of all the other towns and the police chiefs and the police forces and the local emergency management agencies, faced up to the disaster, did everything that they could to show folks that yes, this is tough, and unfortunately government is not the answer to everything, but we can work together, we can face up to this thing and we can bring Mississippi back and bring Mississippi back strong. I applaud Governor Barbour for the leadership he has provided. He gave us a case of one police force where the police station was flooded. The police officers did not cut and run. They did not evacuate. They went to the top floor. The top floor got flooded. They went to the roof of the building. It got flooded. They swam to nearby tree tops. They spent the night on trees. And yet the next morning rather than whine and say, oh, pity me, they came back to work and never evacuated, even though on a personal level all of those police officers from this particular precinct lost all their houses. Their homes were gone and their families had to evacuate for many weeks of separation. That is the face of some of the great American people that we are seeing, not just in Mississippi but also in Louisiana and Alabama, but I particularly applaud Governor Barbour for his leadership.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, there are so many success stories that are going on around Katrina and yet we always dwell on things that are not so successful, but I want to talk about the Coast Guard and some of the great things that the United States Coast Guard has done in the Gulf area. They have rescued 33,000 lives and evacuated another 9,400 from local hospitals. They delivered tons of food and water to survivors. They have responded to over 650 spills of oil, gas and other hazardous material. They have repaired and replaced several hundred aids to navigation to get ports and waterways reopened to oil, gas and commerce. They brought in over 3,300 servicemen and women and called up another 800 reservists to undertake response operations. And they have moved over 75 aircraft, 25 cutters, 110 small boats into the disaster area to execute and search and rescue. Their environmental cleanup has been probably the first that has taken place of any government agency. I commend the United States Coast Guard and wish them the best. Keep up the good work.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I have the honor of representing the entire coast of Georgia from Savannah to Brunswick to St. Mary's, Georgia, and during my 14 years in Congress, we have had a number of tropical depressions and hurricanes, and we have had to evacuate and so forth. And we have been hit, but certainly not to the degree that the gulf has been. Yet, one thing I know from that experience is that you do not sit around and point fingers. You get folks their basic needs after a storm. You get them water, you get them food, you get them shelter, you get them electricity, you get them medical attention, you get them transportation. These things are what we need to be doing right now. Sure, we can sit around in Louisiana and say, why was the National Guard not ordered, and who is in charge of that? Why were the 4,000 buses in New Orleans not activated? Who is in charge of that? We could say, why was the evacuation of New Orleans only made on Sunday, the day beforehand? We can sit around and do that, but that is not going to help people who rightfully need medical attention, food, and water. This is the time to pull together as a Nation, as different people from all over the States with different perspectives and different social statuses and different income brackets, to unify into one and help those on the ground who need our help the most. The United States Congress is doing that. We passed the emergency bill for disaster relief last Friday and we will do it again this week. We are going to continue to pull together to get this recovery going as fast and as orderly as possible.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, I wish to honor James R. Drinnon on his retirement of 34 years of service in Public Health. I'm honored to represent this hard working constituent who has devoted great service to the State of Georgia. In 1971, James R. Drinnon graduated from Mercer University in Macon, GA with a Bachelor of Science degree in Biology. Upon his graduation he was commissioned to the United States Army as a 2nd Lieutenant. After beginning his public health career in 1971, Drinnon worked in Putman and Houston Counties. In 1981, he was transferred to the Georgia State Office of Environmental Health Section as the Occupational Health and Response Specialist. During his time of service Drinnon was named the 1976 Sanitarian of the Year GEHA. He oversaw the Olympic training manual for the 1996 Olympic Games and shared the Golden Hammer Award with the Fulton County Health Department for his service during the Olympics. During his 34 years of service Drinnon has helped enhance and beautify the State of Georgia. He is an accomplished individual whose heart will always be in public service. Supporting his many accomplishments is his wife Elizabeth and four sons. Drinnon is also an active member of the Lutheran Church of the Redeemer in Wilmington Island, GA, active with the National Environmental Health Association, Georgia Public Health Association, and Georgia Environmental Health Association.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentleman from California for yielding me this time. I wanted to speak on this bill and in support of this bill. As a former chairman of the Legislative Branch Subcommittee, I had the honor of serving as the chairman, along with the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Moran) as ranking member, and during our period of time, holding the gavel for this, we did a lot of reforms, and I think we worked very closely with groups that are well used but underappreciated, such as the Office of Compliance or the Library of Congress or the Government Printing Office. We tried to work with these agencies and come up with some reforms that we thought were helpful, and ideas, and we worked for them. I wanted to say to the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Obey) we did a lot of work on the Capitol Visitors Center. I think we had a lot of good suggestions. Many of those suggestions were adopted by the House in our bill, but unfortunately as the bill progressed through the Chambers and got on the other side, the other body insisted on doing things which we thought could have addressed some of the concerns which he has raised today. So I want to say the House is on record as trying to get a grip on the Capitol Visitors Center, unfortunately without the cooperation of the Senate. Another group that we have had a lot of, I will say, growing pains with is the Capitol Hill Police. There are a lot of concerns about making the Capitol campus a fortress. As we walk up here with the eighth grade class from home to be greeted by officers with machine guns on the House steps, it is a little much; and this is something that we have a good discussion about on a Member-to-Member basis, how much security should we have? The Chief of Police has suggested in the past, several times, that we build a wall all around the Capitol, to which, on a bipartisan basis, we have rejected the notion; and yet a wall is not just made out of bricks and mortars but can, in fact, be made out of human beings, and I think to some degree we do have that boundary right now. And that is why it is perplexing to me that the Chief of Police would insist on a mounted horse unit, a unit which the House had decided was not cost efficient in the past and had cut out. This year the bill does not fund the horse mounted unit, and I think that it should remain that way. I know that there is going to be an amendment to restore it, but if we look at the strategic plan of the Capitol Hill Police, they do not even mention their own horse mounted unit. In fact, to quote the GAO report, it says: ``Upon review of the draft United States Capitol Hill Police Strategic Plan for FY 2004 to 2008, and the United States Capitol Threat Assessment, it is unclear how the horse mounted unit supports the Capitol Hill Police strategic mission or how the horse mounted unit would be deployed against threats to the Capitol, because there is no mention of the horse mounted unit in the documents.'' The point is that if the Capitol Hill Police feel that the horses are so important, why are they not mentioning it in their strategic plan? Last year during the debate on this, it was suggested they are better for crowd control. But we do not have crowd control problems here at the Capitol. We do not have demonstrations. We do not have rock concerts. We do not have large masses of people who are coming out to watch or participate in an exhibit. We do have lines of people. We do have lots of people, but mounted police are used best on queuing up large groups of people and pushing back crowds, and that is a threat that we just frankly do not have. But what is the cost of this? Their budget calls for $145,000, they say, and we get free rent. But they do not mention that the stable for these horses is 20 miles away from the United States Capitol and that each day not only do the horses have to commute, and Members know what stress that must be on the horses because, good gosh, we have to put up for that, and I do not remember the horses being allowed to get on the Metro system. But in addition to the horses having to commute, so does the manure. That is right. We have a gigantic pooper-scooper program for the mounted horses, that not only do they come here commuting like the rest of us, but then somebody has to follow behind them, I guess with a baggy from Safeway, as they do in the neighborhoods down in Alexandria. But they have to haul manure off campus at a cost, Mr. Chairman, of $53,000 a year. And for what? To keep some guys on horses in a very tight, small area. This is not acres and acres of land that goes all the way to the Washington Monument. This is a confined area called the United States Capitol. This is just one of the reforms that this House has gone on record of supporting. This bill does support it now. I think that we should pass the bill as it has been passed by the committee. I do want to say one other thing. I am supporting the bill. I do think that the committee has done a good job on continuing a lot of the reforms that are in it.

Mr. KINGSTON

Mr. KINGSTON. Mr. Speaker, let us look at the breakfast menu: pancakes with syrup, orange juice, butter and milk or raisin bran cereal or oatmeal and a bagel and orange juice and butter. Then for lunch we have pita bread, hamburger, honey glazed chicken, and potatoes. What am I talking about? Not the Days Inn, not the Hampton Inn, not the menu here at the Capitol; but I am talking about what prisoners will be eating today in Guantanamo Bay. This is where the Democrats say they are being subjected to cruel and unusual punishment. I will go on with the dinner menu. We have cooked potatoes, seasoned lentils, pita bread, potato wedge, wheat bread, fresh fruit, cauliflower. I will kind of admit that making them eat cauliflower is a little bit tough on them, but we do not make them eat beets or broccoli on the other hand. You have got also lemon pepper chicken, pasta beef, fried chicken, honey chicken, bayou chicken. This is today's menu at Guantanamo Bay. There is where Democrats are saying we are being cruel and unusually mean to prisoners, prisoners of war, prisoners of terrorism, prisoners who because of their confinement have kept us from having another 9/11 attack on American soil. This is just one of the things they will not tell you about Guantanamo Bay.