Rick Larsen

Mr. LARSEN of Washington

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Speaker, this final amendment prohibits the U.S. Coast Guard and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers from awarding contracts to felons convicted of contract fraud, waste and abuse. It was just 1 month ago, Mr. Speaker, that a Federal magistrate judge indicted four individuals on an alleged bribery and kickback scheme regarding U.S. Army Corps of Engineers' contracts that defrauded U.S. taxpayers of a minimum of $20 million; taxpayer dollars wasted on BMWs, Rolexes, flat-screen televisions, first-class airline tickets, investment properties across the globe, and the list goes on. In exchange for these kickbacks, the contractors were guaranteed millions in sole-sourced, open-ended contracts with a total award potential of more than $1.7 billion--that's billion with a ``B.'' They were sailing high on taxpayer dollars while other Americans were struggling to stay afloat. When they were arrested, the coconspirators had their sights set on a $780 million Corps of Engineers' contract. Fortunately, they were apprehended before this very large contract was awarded. Similarly, in August of this year, a Federal court grand jury in Norfolk, Virginia indicted four coconspirators of multiple alleged criminal charges, including conspiracy, theft of public money, wire fraud, illegal gratuities, false statements and money laundering in connection with a kickback scheme involving Coast Guard vessel repair contracts. Mr. Speaker, this August 2011 kickback scheme is particularly striking because of the Coast Guard's spectacular contract failures in recent history under the Deepwater program. We all may recall that under Deepwater, the Coast Guard's most infamous failure was the effort to lengthen the Coast Guard's existing 110-foot patrol boats to 123 feet and install new, upgraded information technology equipment. After eight boats were delivered, the Coast Guard determined that the lengthened hulls cracked and were unsafe. We simply cannot afford to allow one more dollar of our limited Federal resources--of the taxpayers' limited resources--to be wasted. We can help root out these crony kickbacks with this final and straightforward amendment. This is a plain and simple vote to eliminate fraud, waste and abuse. When you hear about contractors who engage in the largest corruption scheme in modern history, like those in the Army Corps, it's clear they need to be put in the penalty box. This final amendment simply says that contractors who rip off taxpayers can't get more contracts. Specifically, it prohibits the Coast Guard and the Corps of Engineers from awarding a contract to a contractor convicted of fraud or a criminal offense related to obtaining a contract or subcontract with the Federal Government. It also prohibits a contract for a contractor convicted of embezzlement, theft, forgery, bribery, falsification or destruction of records, making false statements, tax evasion, violating Federal criminal tax laws, or receiving stolen property from participating. This final amendment ensures that felons convicted of criminal offenses related to receiving government contracts and abusing the public trust will no longer stand to benefit from future Federal contracts for at least 10 years. This amendment will not kill the bill. It will simply immediately add this taxpayer safeguard, and then the House will vote on final passage of the bill right here and right now. So I urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join me in supporting this final amendment, which will ensure that we bust waste, fraud, and abuse and throw those kickback cronies into the penalty box. With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I am opposed to the bill in its current form.

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I have a motion to recommit at the desk.

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Madam Chair, I demand a recorded vote.

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Madam Chair, I claim the time in opposition.

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Madam Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. LARSEN of Washington

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, is there any time left on this side?

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. McIntyre).

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I would like to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Mrs. Napolitano).

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. The Coast Guard is a multi-mission agency responsible for a broad range of activities including mariner licensing, emergency oil spill response, vessel inspections, and search and rescue operations. These and many other activities of the Coast Guard are indispensable and ensure that our coasts and ocean resources are protected; that our oceans, the Great Lakes, and inland waterways remain safe and efficient; and that our maritime industries continue to be vibrant sources of jobs and economic opportunity for the American people. I want to thank Chairman LoBiondo for his leadership in developing this legislation, H.R. 2838, the Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2011, to reauthorize the activities of the Coast Guard for fiscal year 2012 through fiscal year 2014. Although I have reservations that the authorized funding levels in this bill are not sufficient to meet the many well-documented needs of the Coast Guard, at least this bill provides for roughly level funding for the next 3 years. We have had this discussion in committee for the last several months about the Coast Guard, Mr. Chairman, people wanting the Coast Guard to do more with less. The greatest concern that we have is that as we look at funding for the Coast Guard, we're beginning to ask them to do less with less. And that is going to cause future problems for our Coast Guard. In general, Mr. Chairman, the legislation includes several noncontroversial provisions, especially title II, which addresses issues of disparity in policy and authority between the Coast Guard and other armed services. I want to commend the chairman for his commitment to address this issue. There are some provisions in this bill, however, which remain problematic, none more so than the provision that would sequentially decommission the Coast Guard's two heavy icebreakers. The administration has expressed its strong opposition to this provision in its statement of administration policy. At some point, we need to constructively engage the Coast Guard in developing a sound, balanced path forward that realigns our expectations with a level of performance that we can reasonably expect the Coast Guard to deliver, especially for its icebreakers and its polar operations. With that, Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time. Executive Office of the President, Office of Management and Budget, Washington, DC, November 3, 2011. Statement of Administration Policy H.R. 2838--Coast Guard and Maritime Transportation Act of 2011 (Rep. LoBiondo, R-New Jersey, and Rep. Mica, R-Florida) The Administration strongly opposes House passage of H.R. 2838 because it includes a provision that would require the Coast Guard to decommission the icebreaker USCGC POLAR STAR. The administration has requeted, and Congress has appropriated, funds to reactivate the USCGC POLAR STAR by December 2012 and extend that vessel's service life for seven to 10 years. This effort will stabilize the United States' existing polar fleet until long-term icebreaking capability requirements are finalized. By directing the Commandant to decommission the USCGC POLAR STAR within three years, the bill would effectively reduce the vessel's service life to two years and create a significant gap in the Nation's icebreaking capacity. The Administration supports Title II (Coast Guard and Servicemember Parity), which would promote parity between the Coast Guard and the other branches of the armed forces. The Administration looks forward to working with the Congress to improve H.R. 2838 as the bill moves through the legislative process.

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from New York (Mr. Bishop).

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Missouri (Mr. Carnahan).

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. We have no more speakers on the general debate, so I will take a few minutes here to conclude on our side for general debate, and I appreciate the opportunity to close on general debate. The points that were made earlier, I do want to reemphasize a few points. One is a concern we have about the decommissioning process and the decommissioning of the two icebreakers that are in the U.S. Coast Guard fleet. The administration has a statement of administration policy, which you've allowed to be entered into the Record. I think a follow-up to that point would be that we certainly would want to hear from the administration sooner rather than later about a plan for what some would call an organic capability of our icebreaker fleet. That is a U.S. Coast Guard-owned and -operated icebreaker fleet, rather than being left with the potential and real possibility of having to lease icebreakers from other countries to do the work that otherwise we would be doing. That continues to be a major concern. We have heard, as well, concerns about the ballast water title and are expecting amendments and further debate on that as the afternoon progresses. Certainly we are going to have an en bloc amendment, and we will have time to discuss those. I just want to underscore one of those from Mr. McIntyre and the role that the marine transportation system plays, or the MTS as we call it, which consists of waterways and ports and intermodal land-side connections that allow our various modes of transportation to move people and goods to and from and on the water. The MTS is vitally important to our economy. It's vitally important to waterborne cargo and the associated activities which contribute more than $649 billion annually to the U.S. gross domestic product, sustaining more than 13 million jobs. Section 401 of this underlying bill would codify the committee on the marine transportation system, a Federal interdepartmental committee chaired by the Secretary of Transportation. And I think it is just important to underscore further about this MTS, the marine transportation system, and the role that the Coast Guard plays in maintaining that. It can be somewhat invisible to folks if they're not on the water a lot, but the role that the U.S. Coast Guard plays in maintaining that marine transportation system that therefore underlies the economic growth potential that we have from a well-balanced and well-developed marine transportation system is important and is one of the underlying reasons why we even have a Coast Guard authorization bill each year to support the great work of the U.S. Coast Guard. I would encourage Members to take a hard look at this bill. We've got some amendments coming up that Members will bring up, and we'll have good debate on those. But certainly as far as general debate goes, I'd like to take this time now to yield back the balance of my time and urge people to support the underlying bill.

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I would like to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Cummings).

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. I yield the gentleman 1 additional minute.

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I first would like to inquire how much time is remaining.

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in support of Mr. LoBiondo's manager's amendment and appreciate its consideration en bloc with other amendments. In general, the amendment provides helpful technical and clarifying changes to the underlying committee print which will improve the bill. In particular, the provision that grants the Coast Guard discretionary authority to extend the duration of medal certificates is important because it will help ensure that mariners are not left on the dock simply because of administrative backlogs within the Coast Guard preventing the timely issuance of new certificates. Also I support the inclusion of the amended version of Chairman LoBiondo's piracy legislation, H.R. 2039, the Piracy Suppression Act of 2011, and expect that it will help to strengthen our efforts abroad to address the growing threat piracy poses to maritime commerce. In regards to additional amendments in the en bloc, Mr. Shuler's Amendment No. 2 is an important one and encourages all federal agencies certainly to enter into contracts and buy products produced in the U.S., creating jobs for Americans, and the Coast Guard should be no exception. With regards to Mr. Cummings' amendment, I am certainly supportive of that. It mirrors H.R. 3202. Waivers granted by the Maritime Administration this past summer to allow foreign-flagged vessels to transport oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to other areas in U.S. territorial waters raised legitimate concerns that the administrative waiver process lacked transparency and accountability. This amendment would establish new notice and justification requirements for waivers of our Coast Guard's laws and would help to ensure that our merchant fleet is not unnecessarily disadvantaged in the future. With regards to Mr. Murphy's amendment, the gentleman from Connecticut, I can think of no reason why it would not be appropriate for the Coast Guard, when it is soliciting for competitive proposals, to also seek optional job impact statements from these companies bidding on the contract. This will allow the contract officer to assess not only cost comparisons, but also job creation comparisons when making an award and would serve the interests of both the Federal Government and the offerer. This would appear to me to be a good way at little or not cost to better leverage the job-creating potential of contracts awarded by the Coast Guard. And certainly I want to thank the chairman for including Mr. Murphy's amendment into the en bloc amendment. Mr. Chair, certainly there are a few other amendments that folks can speak to at the time that they wish, but we have no objection to the en bloc, and we encourage its support and its passage. With that, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. I support Mr. Cummings' amendment striking the provision in the underlying bill that would eliminate the requirement for the Coast Guard to establish ombudsmen in Coast Guard districts around the country. In committee, Mr. Cummings offered and subsequently withdrew his amendment in the hope that some compromise could be reached. Because the program is little more than a year old, I suggest that it might be premature for Congress to repeal this new program. But I certainly do want to recognize the work that Mr. Cummings and Mr. LoBiondo did to try to find some accommodation. But I do encourage people to support this amendment to allow the ombudsman program to continue so that we might be better able to get a fair evaluation of the program in the future.

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chairman, I yield such time as he may consume to the ranking member of the full committee, the gentleman from West Virginia (Mr. Rahall).

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Chair, I support Mr. Thompson's amendment to insert a congressional nomination process for admission to the United States Coast Guard. This provision, which was included in Coast Guard legislation that passed the House during the 111th Congress, would establish the same process to allow Members of Congress the opportunity to nominate individuals for entrance into the Coast Guard Academy. I realize that the Coast Guard does not support the Congress imposing a nomination process on the agency, but if it does result in a more diverse workforce within the Coast Guard, we will all be better for it, including the Coast Guard, too. Congressional Nominations at the Coast Guard Academy Vote ``YES'' on the Thompson Amendment to H.R. 2838 The following list is of States and Territories where no applicants were accepted for the incoming Coast Guard Academy Class of 2015--Arkansas, Delaware, Louisiana, Mississippi, Montana, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont, American Samoa, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands. Prepared by the House Committee on Homeland Security, Democratic Staff, November 4, 2011.

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. I claim the time in opposition.

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. I yield my time to the gentleman from American Samoa (Mr. Faleomavaega). (Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. LARSEN of Washington

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I too rise in support of this legislation, which would provide a narrow waiver from the coastwise laws for the vessels competing or supporting the upcoming America's Cup finals to be held in 2013. The America's Cup, the world's premier international sailing competition, will be held in San Francisco Bay by virtue of the United States' successful challenge to reclaim the cup last year. This legislation is necessary to ensure that the competition can go forward in an expeditious manner for all competitors. The legislation also includes several other vessel waivers that are included in H.R. 2828, which were cleared by the Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure in September. I appreciate as well that my request to waive the coastwise laws for the maritime education vessel, LUNA, has been included in this bill, as well as in the Coast Guard bill, and support passage of this legislation. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. LARSEN of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time. In conclusion, let me just say that the America's Cup is the oldest competitive sailing competition. The U.S. held the Cup for over 134 years before losing to Australia off of Newport, Rhode Island. We are very proud to have reclaimed the Cup and look forward to defending it in 2013. With that, Mr. Speaker, I support the passage of the America's Cup Act of 2011, and I yield back the balance of my time.