Tom Latham

Mr. LATHAM

Mr. LATHAM. Madam Speaker, I rise today to recognize Mr. Donnie D. Chizek as a member of Troop A, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment. This military unit was recently awarded the Presidential Unit Citation. This rare and prestigious citation honors the Unit's courageous actions in the Republic of South Vietnam. In 1970 Troop A, 1st Squadron, 11th Armored Cavalry Regiment distinguished itself through a series of serious combat missions over a period of several months. The Presidential Unit Citation has been awarded less than 100 times since its inception in 1941. I am very pleased with the Department of Defense's review and recommendation to recognize this unit with this esteemed honor. The bravery and sacrifice displayed by Donnie Chizek during his service to our nation goes above and beyond what we are asked of as citizens of this country. I know that members of the House of Representatives join me in congratulating Donnie on his well deserved award and wish him the best in his future endeavors.

Mr. LATHAM

Mr. LATHAM. Madam Speaker, pursuant to the new House Republican standards on earmarks, I am submitting the following information. Bill Number: H.R. 3288--Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Alice Road Amount Provided: $750,000 Account: FHWA TCSP--Transportation & Community & System Preservation Recipient: Iowa Dept of Transportation Recipient's Street Address: 800 Lincoln Way Ames, IA 50010 Description: This funding would be used for the constructing of a 6- lane arterial blvd. as part of a north-south economic development corridor. Bill Number: H.R. 3288--Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Ames Intermodal Facility Amount Provided: $350,000 Account: FTA--Buses & Bus Facilities Recipient: Ames Transit Agency Recipient's Street Address: 1700 University Blvd. Ames, IA 50010 Description: This project would construct an intermodal transportation facility that would consolidate three essential transportation functions in Ames, IA. within a single, intermodal facility (intercity bus operations, public transit and parking law enforcement). The funds would accommodate the design phase of this project, in support of a multi-modal and ``green'' transportation resource. Funding would move the project forward. Bill Number: H.R. 3288--Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Ames Transit Facility Expansion Amount Provided: $500,000 Account: FTA--Buses & Bus Facilities Recipient: Ames Transit Agency Recipient's Street Address: 1700 University Blvd. Ames, IA 50010 Description: The current bus storage facility is built for 25 vehicles; the facility now houses 70 vehicles on the same site, crowding both storage and maintenance operations. The new facility would be built on the existing site or a satellite site. Bill Number: H.R. 3288--Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Earthworks Engineering Research Center--EERC Amount Provided: $500,000 Account: Transportation Planning, Research, and Development Recipient: Iowa State University Recipient's Street Address: 1750 Beardshear Hall Ames, IA 50011 Description: The EERC is an effort that does research in the area of geo & construction engineering approaches to U.S. civil infrastructure needs. The research initiatives are aimed at finding better ways to evaluate those technologies and techniques used in earth moving related to new and improved transportation infrastructure. This project is all the more relevant as we approach solutions to infrastructure needs. Bill Number: H.R. 3288--Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Iowa Highway 92 Reconstruction Amount Provided: $750,000 Account: FHWA TCSP--Transportation & Community & System Preservation Recipient: Iowa Dept of Transportation Recipient's Street Address: 800 Lincoln Way Ames, IA 50010 Description: The project would consist of improvements to Iowa Highway 92 located in Warren County, Iowa. Project would begin approx. 1,000' west of Warren County Road R63 and extend east for approximately 1.3 miles to the city of Indianola. This project is necessary because the existing highway no longer meets current roadway design standards, and has areas of limited passing and sight distance. The area has an above average crash rate. Bill Number: H.R. 3288--Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Jefferson, Iowa Streetscape Amount Provided: $385,000 Account: HUD EDI Recipient: City of Jefferson Recipient's Street Address: 220 Chestnut St. Jefferson, IA 50129 Description: This is phase I of a multi-phase streetscape initiative that includes underground wiring for signal controls, sidewalk re- facing and general improvements from the back of curbs to building fences in a four-block area around the Greene County Courthouse. Bill Number: H.R. 3288--Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Jet Engine Technology Inspection to Support Continued Airworthiness--JET Amount Provided: $700,000 Account: Research (FAA) Recipient: Iowa State University Recipient's Street Address: 1750 Beardshear Hall Ames, IA 50011 Description: The JET program at Iowa State Univ. develops advanced inspection techniques for jet engine components to enable the use of more fuel efficient engine technologies, and to ensure that new material & design approaches do not compromise safety. Aviation safety is important to the industry, particularly as new materials are driven close to margins of safety. Bill Number: H.R. 3288--Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Marshalltown Bus Replacement Amount Provided: $315,000 Account: FTA--Buses & Bus Facilities Recipient: City of Marshalltown Recipient's Street Address: 24 N. Center St. Marshalltown, IA 50158 Description: The City of Marshalltown is seeking to replace one ``low-floor'' bus that is 17 years old. The funding is needed to assist in the purchase of a replacement bus for use as part of the city public transportation fleet. Bill Number: H.R. 3288--Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Roger Snedden Dr. Extension/Grade Separation--Phase 1 Amount Provided: $1,000,000 Account: FHWA TCSP--Transportation & Community & System Preservation Recipient: Iowa Dept of Transportation Recipient's Street Address: 800 Lincoln Way Ames, IA 50010 Description: This project is oriented toward safety improvement with the reconstruction of Industrial Park Road, including the widening of this heavily traveled road, and planned construction of a railroad overpass. Funding is needed for reconstruction of Industrial Park Rd, in anticipation of overpass construction. The overpass grade separation will allow safe crossing over a busy railroad switchyard, improving safety and environmental impacts. Bill Number: H.R. 3288--Transportation, Housing and Urban Development, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: West Grand Avenue Extension Amount Provided: $750,000 Account: FHWA TCSP--Transportation & Community & System Preservation Recipient: Iowa Dept of Transportation Recipient's Street Address: 800 Lincoln Way Ames, IA 50010 Description: This project is comprised of three roadway segments that will be part of the transportation infrastructure in SE Dallas County, IA. The roadway corridor improvements will provide access from I-35 to a technology park and, ultimately, connect to I-80 and the SW Beltway in Madison County, IA. The funding in the bill is for necessary planning and environmental reports. Bill Number: H.R. 3326--Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Portable Rapid Bacterial Warfare Detection Unit Amount Provided: $4,000,000 Account: Research, Development, Test and Evaluation, Defense-Wide Recipient: Advanced Analytical Technologies, Inc. Recipient's Street Address: 2901 South Loop Drive, Ames, IA 50010 Description: The project objective is to develop portable instrumentation that provides biological warfare identification in drinking water samples in hours or minutes instead of days. This technology provides the rapid response needed to protect our troops from exposure to harmful agents on the battlefield, and could also have homeland security applications. For example, early bird flu virus identification in remote areas could help avert a pandemic flu scenario. This technology would provide for the rapid detection of biological warfare agents both domestically and internationally. Bill Number: H.R. 3326--Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Shared Vision Amount Provided: $3,000,000 Account: Research, Development, Test and Evaluation--Army Recipient: Mechdyne Corporation. Recipient's Street Address: 11 East Church Street, Marshalltown IA 50158 Description: The project objective is to develop software and hardware to achieve a capability to provide all levels of military command with access to real-time, visual information about a battle space, for use in mission planning and after action review. The result will be a battlefield-ready Army Battle Command System that integrates information collected using a wide range of methods (reconnaissance imagery, direct surveillance, sensors, etc.) to create virtual representations of a given area, providing an operational picture for all mission phases. The request will provide funding needed to proceed with field-testing and evaluation of the system, the next stage of development with the U.S. Army. Bill Number: H.R. 3326--Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Wireless Medical Monitoring System (WiMed) Amount Provided: $3,000,000 Account: Research, Development, Test and Evaluation--Army Recipient: Athena GTX Recipient's Street Address: 3630 SW 61st Street, Suite 395 Description: The purpose of the project is to greatly improve casualty care in combat situations, where medics are unable to effectively monitor injured soldiers' conditions. Current medical triage monitors and vital signs data tracking tools are complex, heavy, and have numerous wires with bulky connections. Wounded soldiers in Iraq will see care within one hour, and in Afghanistan the time may exceed four hours. There are often extensive delays in air evacuations during fire fights and a definitive lack of medical state monitoring. The Wireless Medical Monitoring System ensures that medical triage can be performed effectively by medics on the battlefield, and that medical information about the casualty is retained to improve treatment following evacuation. The system includes a stick-on sensor that integrates pulse oximetry, blood pressure, temperature, skin humidity, and electrocardiograms into a single unit. Information from these units is broadcast to a single monitoring screen used by the medic, using Wi- Fi technology. The U.S. Army and the National Trauma Institute are currently conducting comprehensive clinical trials across numerous Level 1 Trauma Centers using this system. Bill Number: H.R. 3326--Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: HyperAcute Vaccine Development Amount Provided: $4,500,000 Account: Research, Development, Test and Evaluation--Army Recipient: BioProtection Systems Corporation Recipient's Street Address: 2901 S. Loop Drive, Suite 3360, Ames, IA 50010 Description: The project objective is to develop anti-viral vaccines for use against Ebola, Crimean Congo and other biological warfare agents. Although millions of dollars have been spent on Biological Defense over the past several years, only a handful of vaccines/ medications have been developed to counter known threats. Unfortunately, most have proven to be weak and impractical to administer because they require multiple doses for protection or treatment. Importantly, these vaccines would not protect against genetically engineered biological weapons, which are relatively easy to produce. The vaccine technology is being developed to (1) enhance current vaccines, making them more effective and practical for use, (2) generate vaccines for known threats where a vaccine does not exist, and (3) develop a vaccine platform that could be adapted for newly developed biological agents. This request covers the third year in a three-year development plan for this vaccine technology, which was selected by the Department of Defense to satisfy existing military requirements, and has received funding through the National Institutes of Health, and the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Bill Number: H.R. 3326--Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Advanced Live, Virtual, and Constructive (LVC) Training Systems Amount Provided: $3,500,000 Account: Research, Development, Test and Evaluation--Army Recipient: Iowa State University Recipient's Street Address: 1750 Beardshear Hall, Ames, IA 50011-2035 Description: The Virtual Reality Applications Center (VRAC) located at Iowa State University has a scientific team leading research in the development of advanced software prototypes that utilize immersive virtual warfighting environments, in collaboration with the U.S. Army. Keeping up with the unique demands of urban combat and ever-changing environments in counterinsurgency warfare requires flexible and adaptive training systems that can be modified rapidly and deployed effectively in the field. This project is intended to help the Department of Defense meet its training objective to ensure soldiers can improvise and adapt to emerging challenges. Bill Number: H.R. 3326--Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Multi-Utility Materials for Army Future Combat Systems Amount Requested: $1,000,000 Account: Research, Development, Test and Evaluation--Army Recipient: Iowa State University Recipient's Street Address: 1750 Beardshear Hall, Ames, IA 50011-2035 Description: This initiative is designed to enable Iowa State University, in partnership with Florida A&M University and the South Dakota School of Mines & Technology, to support the U.S. Army in developing and evaluating weapons and protective armor materials, with emphasis on survivability. This includes the development of new materials and nondestructive techniques to assure that the materials have the desired properties to provide the best and most reliable physical protection to the soldier. Bill Number: H.R. 3326--Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Low Cost GPS Receivers Amount Provided: $4,000,000 Account: Defense Production Act Recipient: Rockwell Collins Recipient's Street Address: 400 Collins Rd., Cedar Rapids, IA, 52498 Description: This initiative is funded under the ``Defense Production Act,'' which ensures that certain products are manufactured in America--for national security reasons. The primary objective of the program is to bring production of the ``substrate'' used to construct military GPS microchips back to the U.S. from overseas. The funding will also further development of the next generation military GPS receiver, which will be smaller, more accurate, more secure, and cheaper to produce. Cost savings will allow the purchase of a higher number of receivers so that each squad of soldiers could have one. Due to the current shortage of military GPS units, soldiers are purchasing and using commercial handheld devices that are highly vulnerable to electronic interference, jamming, and spoofing.

Mr. LATHAM

Mr. LATHAM. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate Ruth L. Tucker on the celebration of her 100th birthday on July 22, 2009. Ruth was an aspiring writer and a teacher at Pisgah country school. Her reputation as a quality teacher and writer has been recognized at Winterset High School where the Ruth L. Tucker Writing Award scholarship has been established in her honor. Ruth is known for her hospitality and being an excellent cook. She is also a member of the United Methodist Church in Winterset, Iowa. There have been many changes that have occurred during the past one hundred years. Since Ruth's birth we have revolutionized air travel and walked on the moon. We have invented the television and the Internet. We have fought in wars overseas, seen the rise and fall of Soviet communism and the birth of new democracies. Ruth has lived through eighteen United States Presidents and twenty-two Governors of Iowa. In her lifetime the population of the United States has more than tripled. I congratulate Ruth Tucker for reaching this milestone of a birthday. I am extremely honored to represent Ruth in the United States Congress and I wish her happiness and health in her future years.

Mr. LATHAM

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

Mr. LATHAM

Mr. LATHAM. I thank the gentleman from Michigan for the time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in reluctant support of this bill. I also rise to point out that what we're doing today, in considering the increase for the Highway Trust Fund, is exactly what I sought to do last week through an amendment presented to the Rules Committee. My amendment was aimed at employing a little common sense and transferring excessive resources in the rapid rail appropriations to the much-needed resource category in the Highway Trust Fund. I was seeking to transfer to the trust fund $3 billion of the $4 billion that is currently in the rapid rail appropriations in the House version of the FY 2010 transportation appropriations bill. That amendment would have left the $1 billion for rail that the President had requested. As things now stand, the $4 billion on top of the $8 billion in the stimulus package remains in the rail account, and at least $2 billion of that is parked for a future infrastructure bank, which is only just an idea, no authorization, nothing. It may be at least a year, and probably much longer, before any of these funds can be spent; and the Highway Trust Fund needs money now, which is what I said last week. Had my amendment been made in order, it would have passed and been offset. Had it passed, we would be dealing with a much smaller amount today. Unfortunately, the Rules Committee didn't see fit to make the amendment in order and, in the process, make use of funding authority that will not be needed for some time. So once again, politics governed the process. It's very unfortunate. I think it is worth pointing out today to all the Members here that in a June 4 hearing this year, Secretary LaHood, in response to my question regarding offsets for the Highway Trust Fund bailout said, ``We have to pay for this. I mean, the administration is committed to paying for the $5 billion to $7 billion that is needed to plus up the trust fund in 2009, and it is about $8 billion or $10 billion for 2010. We are committed to paying for it; and I hope sooner rather than later, we will be coming back to all of you and saying, here is how we think we should do it.'' To my knowledge, in this bill there are no offsets. I know that technically this is an intergovernmental transfer, so there's no PAYGO and technically no scoring on this. But the money will soon be spent by the Treasury. Just so folks understand what is going on here with this shell game, I will give you an example. I'm the government. I've got $1 in this pocket--in this case, we're talking about 7 billion of these, which would go to the Moon--and what we're doing is saying that we are transferring this dollar from the right pocket to the left pocket, even though we know that it's already spent in the left pocket. But it doesn't cost anything. It's free money. Why don't we transfer $1 trillion? It's all free, right? No offset. It's just from one pocket to another. The problem is, folks, we know this is being spent; and there's nothing in this pocket. We're borrowing from our kids and our grandchildren because there is nothing here. We're $2 trillion in deficit this one year and we're talking about, We don't have to pay for anything. It's all free money. In conclusion, I would just hope that we bring some sanity to this process.

Mr. LATHAM

Mr. LATHAM. Sometimes I wonder if anybody on the other side of the aisle ever goes home because I tell you, doing town meetings, we have three or four times more people than normal show up. And I will tell you what, they are scared to death of what they see happening in this country. When they look at the $787 billion stimulus package that has no benefit to anyone today, when they look at people voting for cap-and- trade without even having read the bill, only to find out that in Iowa that would cost 17,000 jobs for each of the next 20 years and 2.5 million jobs nationwide for the next 20 years, they go, What's going on? When are we going to get our government back? When are people going to listen to us and be responsive? What this debate is all about is our children and our grandchildren and what we're going to leave them for the future; what it's going to do for someone who wants an opportunity to start a small business, to grow and prosper and be part of this economy. We are destroying the future of this country with what this Congress is doing.

Mr. LATHAM

Mr. LATHAM. Madam Speaker, pursuant to the new House Republican standards on earmarks, I am submitting the following information. Bill Number: H.R. 3293, Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Bio-Security Level 3 Lab Amount Provided: $650,000 Account: Health Resources and Services Administration Recipient: Iowa State University Recipient's Street Address: 1750 Beardshear Hall, Ames, IA 50011 Description: In order to contribute to the nation's pressing biosecurity needs, and to develop strategies for safeguarding the nation's animal agriculture and human populations from such highly infectious agents as influenza, Brucella, and West Nile virus, the funding will be used to help Iowa State University expand its high security, Bio-Security Level 3 facilities. Iowa State University's College of Veterinary Medicine long has been preeminent in the field of infectious disease research in domestic animals. More recently, in response to public health and national security concerns and in an effort to protect and secure the nation's animal agriculture industry, ISU has focused on research that addresses new and novel strategies to prevent and control foreign animal and zoonotic diseases. Zoonotic diseases are pathogens carried by animals that may be spread to humans, and many modern diseases, including various epidemics, initially were spread this way. Bill Number: H.R. 3293, Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Electronic Medical Record System Amount Provided: $250,000 Account: Health Resources and Services Administration Recipient: Madison County Health Care Center Recipient's Street Address: 300 W. Hutchings, Winterset, IA 50273 Description: The funding will be used to install and implement an electronic medical record program which will improve the quality of health care provided to rural Iowans while reducing the potential for medical errors as well as realizing a reduction in costs through eliminating duplicity and paperwork. Bill Number: H.R. 3293, Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Health Occupations Training Simulator Amount Provided: $165,000 Account: Employment and Training Administration--Training & Employment Services Recipient: Iowa Valley Community College Recipient's Street Address: 3702 South Center Street, Marshalltown, IA 50158 Description: This funding will purchase Health Occupation Training Simulators which will be used during training activities for current and future Registered Nurses (RN), Licensed Practical Nurses (LPN), Certified Nursing Assistants (CNA), Emergency Medical Technicians (EMT), and other health care practitioners. Bill Number: H.R. 3293, Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Improving the Health Status of Rural Iowans through Prevention Amount Provided: $200,000 Account: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Recipient: Des Moines University Recipient's Street Address: 3200 Grand Avenue, Des Moines, IA 50312 Description: This project would continue research involving a preventative health program focused on individuals 55-64 with moderate to high risk of chronic disease as determined by a Health Risk Assessment (HRA). The project is tracking health status and health risk for selected rural residents over the course of three years. Individuals identified by risk levels are participating in health risk prevention intervention programs. Bill Number: H.R. 3293, Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: INet Electronic Medical Record System for Intensive Care Unit Amount Provided: $350,000 Account: Health Resources and Services Administration Recipient: Mercy Medical Center--North Iowa Recipient's Street Address: 1000 4th Street SW, Mason City, IA 50401 Description: This funding would provide software, equipment and personnel training to implement the first fully automated intensive care unit in Iowa. The current system uses paper records, charts, etc. along with a basic EMR. The new system would utilize an enhanced electronic medical record that would improve monitoring of critical care patients, allow remote monitoring of patients in the Mercy ICU by their physicians in the surrounding communities, and reduce long-term costs associated with duplicate tests and paper-based records. Bill Number: H.R. 3293, Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Institute for Novel Vaccine and Anti-Microbial Design (INOVA) Amount Provided: $1,000,000 Account: Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Recipient: Iowa State University Recipient's Street Address: 1750 Beardshear Hall, Ames, IA 50011 Description: The Novel Vaccine and Anti-Microbial Design (INOVA) will bring together a highly inter-disciplinary team of experienced scientific leaders from Iowa State University, the University of Iowa, and the National Animal Disease Center, to translate groundbreaking discoveries into the molecular design of new classes of immunobiotics and vaccines to reduce the current and expanding national threat associated with infectious disease. Bill Number: H.R. 3293, Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Act, 2010 Project Name: Medical Equipment Amount Provided: $694,000 Account: Health Resources and Services Administration Recipient: Trinity Regional Medical Center Recipient's Street Address: 802 Kenyon Road, Fort Dodge, IA 50501 Description: The funding would be used to replace the nine-year old, outdated cardiac catheterization lab equipment and provide the highest quality cardiac care to patients in a nine-county primary service area. Northwest central Iowa needs a facility with a state-of-the-art catheterization lab. Patients should not have to (and in some cases, cannot) travel to Des Moines, Mason City or Ames to have access to a new cath lab and the life saving services offered by new equipment. Residents in Fort Dodge, and surrounding communities such as Humboldt and Pocahontas, for example, are in need of the services offered by state of the art cath lab equipment. The new technology will allow integration to a new image acquisition/storage system and will help continue the commitment to provide a comprehensive cardiac catheterization service to patients in Northwest Central Iowa.

Mr. LATHAM

Mr. LATHAM. I have no additional speakers and, again, I want to personally thank the chairman for his consideration and again say thank you to the great staff that we have on both sides of the aisle. It's been a real pleasure working with you. I appreciate it. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. LATHAM. Would the gentleman yield?

Mr. LATHAM. I rise in support of the amendment also.

Mr. LATHAM. Does the gentleman yield?

Mr. LATHAM. I will join the chairman, and we will certainly be glad to accept the amendment.

Mr. LATHAM. Mr. Chairman, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. LATHAM. I yield myself the remainder of the time. I will have to say I'm a little bit confused. First they're saying that this is a cut to high-speed rail, and then the last speaker got up here and said, Well, no, that money is not for high-speed rail, it's for some program that hasn't even been authorized yet. I'm not quite sure where we are here, because we're talking about spending the same money two or three times. I would suggest to the gentlewoman from Connecticut that there is no authorized bank. And by the language in this bill, those dollars could not be transferred until the next fiscal year, which means that the whole next year's cycle, if this bank is authorized, if that money is needed, we can do that next year. But to have this money sit in a slush fund basically and do nothing-- and everyone knows it's not going to go out the door, and the gentleman from Massachusetts knows--my chairman, who I love dearly--but he knows that I made this statement in committee. I'm not against high-speed rail. As a matter of fact, I made the statement on two different occasions that I think the $787 billion of stimulus money could have had actually been well spent and we could have a national high-speed rail system and actually accomplish something if we would have spent all of that money in the stimulus just on high-speed rail. We would have the Eisenhower Interstate Project. I'm not against it, but I'm just saying to have this money sit here and do nothing when we've got a critical issue, as far as the highway trust fund that needs funding immediately, is simply wrong. Let's save the money, let's make the bill acceptable to a lot more people who can support it on a bipartisan basis. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. LATHAM. I will reserve at this time.

Mr. LATHAM. I will reserve at this time.

Mr. LATHAM. I thank the chairman very much. This really is a very simple amendment. I seek to bring the funding level for high-speed rail back down to the President's request of $1 billion and strike the transfer authority for the National Infrastructure Bank. When the stimulus deal was announced by the President and the Democrat leadership, we were told that the plan was to provide $8 billion for high-speed rail in the stimulus and another $1 billion a year for the next 5 years. My amendment meets the President's goals and his plans. We are just now embarking on this high-speed rail initiative. The stimulus funds are still in the Treasury. They haven't been spent, and there is little reason to dump another $3 billion on top of an unspent $8 billion since the committee hasn't even had the time to do any oversight at all in this area. I know the chairman is going to reference that there is pent-up demand for high-speed rail, and he is going to mention $100 billion in grant applications. Are we really ready to embark on a $100 billion endeavor on top of the million-, billion- and trillion-dollar endeavors already under consideration? We don't even know if those grant applications have any feasibility at all. Second, this amendment would strike the transfer to the National Infrastructure Bank. The administration requested $5 billion for a bank in their budget requests, but it didn't include any authorizing language at all. I know there are a few bills out there that would authorize this, and those proposals should be considered in the regular authorizing process. However, there is no bank today. There is no authorized bank in which to put this money. I'm not opposed to the bank idea, but I believe we should know what the activities and programs are that we are paying for up front. The bill before us gives authority to transfer $2 billion to the bank on October 1, 2010, should the bank ever be authorized by that date. Now, October 1, 2010, is actually in the 2011 fiscal year, and this committee will have the opportunity to consider funding that bank within the budget priorities for fiscal year 2011 under that 2011 allocation. There is absolutely no reason to do that now. I did have an amendment to transfer the $3 billion to the highway trust fund, but the Rules Committee was probably too worried that the amendment may pass. However, without the transfer, this is still a good amendment. Cutting an extra unrequested $3 billion from this account still meets the President's request, his commitment, and would give me good reason to support this otherwise pretty good bill. I urge the adoption of my amendment. Again, I just want to make sure people know that this is $3 billion on top of the $1 billion the President requested, $2 billion of which is set aside--people talk about this money going to high-speed rail. It's not going to go there. This is set aside in a fund basically to be held so that just in case this infrastructure bank is authorized, the money will go there. This has nothing to do with high-speed rail. It has everything to do with making this a bill that people can support. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. LATHAM. Mr. Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

Mr. LATHAM. I will support the gentleman's amendment, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. LATHAM. Again, I just want to reiterate, these are good, substantive amendments. All have merit. The frustration I have is that all five are Democrat amendments, never even an opportunity. And there will be several more Republican amendments here that we'll probably agree on. I don't know why we couldn't do this. But it's frustration I have with the process, and it's very concerning to me.

Mr. LATHAM. Let me just express my frustration in this amendment, and they're all good projects. There are five amendments, all Democrat amendments, all of substance, that we could have agreed on. But also, looking through the list here: We have another four or five amendments that we could have agreed on, of substance, and we will agree on. Again, I go back to the fact that the Rules Committee, the process is just totally out of whack, and the fact that while I don't oppose these--actually, one of the projects that Mr. Braley referred to is something that I started several years ago and has been very, very successful as far as using soybean grease as far as lubricants on railroads. It's been in practice now for several years. It's the frustration I have that we couldn't have substantive amendments made in order. We have five Democratic amendments put in here, of substance, while we were denied that option. I think it is extremely unfair and really brings shame upon this body and the process that should be in place for all of our constituents to have their Representatives here to decide and vote on amendments which would be of importance to their districts and to the Members' constituents. I just, again, express my total frustration with the Rules Committee. I don't blame the chairman at all, but it's just the process has totally fallen apart. With that, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Broun).

Mr. LATHAM. Mr. Chairman, I would ask for the time in opposition, although I will not oppose his amendment.

Mr. LATHAM. I continue to reserve, please.

Mr. LATHAM. I continue to reserve.

Mr. LATHAM. I continue to reserve.