Pete Olson

Mr. OLSON

Mr. OLSON. Madam Speaker, today I pay tribute to James R. Walker, CRNA, DNP, of Pearland, Texas, in my congressional district. Dr. Walker will soon complete his year as national president of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists (AANA). I am very pleased that a fellow Texan was elected by his colleagues as the 2009-2010 President of this prestigious national organization. Founded in 1931 and celebrating its 79th anniversary, the AANA is the professional organization that represents more than 40,000 practicing Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs) and nurse anesthesia students nationwide. As you may know, CRNAs are advanced practice nurses who administer more than 32 million anesthetics in the United States each year. CRNAs practice in every setting in which anesthesia is delivered: traditional hospital surgical suites and obstetrical delivery rooms; critical access hospitals; ambulatory surgical centers; the offices of dentists, podiatrists, ophthalmologists, plastic surgeons; in the U.S. military, Public Health Service, and in Department of Veterans Affairs healthcare facilities. CRNAs also specialize in the management of pain. CRNAs provide anesthesia for all types of surgical cases and in some States are the sole anesthesia providers in the vast majority of rural hospitals, affording these medical facilities obstetrical, surgical and trauma stabilization services. Dr. Walker was educated in the art and science of Nurse Anesthesia, at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, Texas. He earned his Bachelor of Science in Nursing (BSN) degree from the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. In addition, Dr. Walker holds a Doctor of Nursing Practice (DNP) from Texas Christian University in Fort Worth, Texas, and he is currently working on a Doctor of Philosophy (PhD) in Nursing at the Texas Women's University in Houston, Texas. Currently, he is the Director of the Graduate Program in Nurse Anesthesia at the Baylor College of Medicine, where he also serves as an Associate Professor of Anesthesiology. Dr. Walker has held numerous leadership positions in the AANA as Regional Director and President-elect before becoming the National President of the AANA in August 2009. In addition, he has served terms as President, President-Elect, Vice-President, and Federal Political Director, for the Texas Association of Nurse Anesthetists (TANA). While at the Baylor College of Medicine, he was awarded the J. David Holcomb Achievement Award for Allied Health Sciences Education, Research, Faculty Development, and Scholarship; the Fulbright & Jaworski Faculty Excellence Award for Educational Leadership; and has been named Outstanding Academic Instructor numerous times. In 2004, the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists named him Program Director of the Year. Dr. Walker has been a Member of the Texas Nurses Association; a Member of the American Nurses Association; a Member of the American Academy of Pain Management (AAPM), and served as an On-site Team Reviewer for the Council on Accreditation of Nurse Anesthesia Educational Programs. Adding to his professional accomplishments, Dr. Walker has been recognized for speaking on anesthesia- and sleep apnea-related topics over the years. During his AANA Presidency, Dr. Walker advocated for CRNAs and patients before the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, the Health Resources Services Administration, and other federal agencies. In addition, Dr. Walker represented the AANA before the House Appropriations Subcommittee on Military Construction, Veterans Affairs and Related Agencies, testifying about the contributions of CRNAs in the Veterans Affairs and military health systems. Finally, Dr. Walker has been an invaluable advocate for the value of CRNAs in the environment of health reform, as the attention of the Nation and this Congress has been upon making high quality healthcare more accessible and less costly to patients, households, employers and our country. In particular, he has demonstrated leadership in promoting provider nondiscrimination, supporting equity in anesthesia payment in educational settings, advancing patient access to rural CRNA services, and in reversing Medicare Part B cuts for anesthesia and physician services. Through his leadership, a landmark study on the cost effectiveness and quality of anesthesia professionals was published this summer in the journal Nursing Economics, showing specifically how CRNA services contribute to cost-effective and well-managed healthcare delivery in hospitals and ambulatory surgical centers. Madam Speaker, I rise to ask my colleagues to join me today in recognizing the outgoing President of the American Association of Nurse Anesthetists, Dr. James R. Walker, CRNA, DNP, for his notable career and outstanding achievements.

Mr. OLSON

Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, as Americans ask, Where are the jobs, we see the job creation of one family at risk thanks to the President's ill- conceived offshore drilling moratorium. Sunbelt Machine Works Corporation was founded 32 years ago by Frank and Mary Scantlin. While Frank ran the shop, Mary served as secretary and a truckdriver to help out. Their children grew up sweeping the floors and learning the business, working their way up in a company that today employs 70 people in the district that I represent. The President's moratorium will cause Sunbelt to lay off people soon if production doesn't restart quickly. Jobs have already headed overseas, as two rigs have left the gulf. The CEO of one of those rigs' owners apologized for the ``loss of U.S. jobs'' because of the moratorium. Mr. Speaker, we must lift this job-killing moratorium now. Americans are tired of asking, Where are the jobs?

Mr. OLSON

Mr. OLSON. Would my colleague yield?

Mr. OLSON. One thing I am concerned about, as my colleague knows, is the fact that this administration is making NASA a partisan issue in many ways. As you alluded to, I am not sure who proposed this budget or who put it together, but they certainly didn't outreach. It seemed like a very small group of individuals at the White House over at OMB who made these decisions that have dramatic impacts for our Nation. As you alluded to, I don't think they talked to any of the defense contractors, particularly the ones that developed the missiles for our strategic nuclear deterrence. As I understood it, nothing. They heard nothing. I represent the Johnson Space Center, the home of human space flight. Our center director, when I called him up on February 2 just to sort of get how are people doing, what's the mood there, those type questions, I asked him, when did you find out? He says, I found out about it when you did. I read the paper yesterday. That's another point. I mean Congress has the oversight. We are the power of the purse. And I am unaware of any outreach from the administration to any Member of Congress prior to this decision being made. I am a freshman here as a Member of Congress, but I have been on the Hill for a number of years, particularly in the military and the Navy. One of the standard things was, if you are going to make a radical change in a program, you went and talked to the committees of jurisdiction, the chairman, the ranking member, and at least sort of gave them the courtesy of what you were planning to do. And I am unaware of anything like that happening. And again, they are playing politics with this. This thing we are doing with the termination liability, the Anti-Deficiency Act, where they are using--we think it's unprecedented. We are doing some research to find out if it's ever been done in the past. As my colleague knows, what's basically done is, NASA has told the contractors you are going to have to hold some money in reserve for termination liability. You can't spend that on developing rockets and human space flight. You are going to have to hold that in an account in case things get terminated. And what do the companies have to do? The money they were holding for September 30 is now going to be dried up sometime in the middle of August. The only solution they have is to lay off those people. And again, I don't want to be skeptical, but that gets the administration more of what they want. If those people go, we are going to have a hard time getting them back, and the costs are going to go up. We need to stop this. We can't make NASA a partisan issue. It's been a bipartisan issue. That's its strength. Every American loves human space flight, is proud of America, what we have done in orbit and what we have done on the Moon. And we've got to go beyond that. And Constellation, as my colleague alluded to, is the best, most tried way so far to do it. There is no reason to get off that path.

Mr. OLSON. If my colleague would yield very briefly again, I am just very scared that this administration is turning NASA into a partisan political football, and it's never been that way. Let me read just another quote again from the letter I read earlier that was put together by Walt Cunningham, who was one of our first return-to-flight astronauts after the Apollo 1 disaster. Walt flew in the next Apollo mission. And he has been very adamant and very clear about how he feels this change, this radical budget is going to affect our human space flight future. Let me just read the three paragraphs that I think are most important. Again, Walt and about 30 other astronauts from every program, every human space flight program we have, signed this letter: ``Too many men and women have worked too hard and sacrificed too much to achieve America's preeminence in space, only to see that effort needlessly thrown away. We urge you to demonstrate the vision and the determination necessary to keep our Nation at the forefront of human space exploration with ambitious goals and the proper resources to see them through. This is not the time to abandon the promise of space frontier for a lack of will or an unwillingness to pay the price.'' Yet that's exactly what this budget proposal does. And I am very scared that this has become a partisan issue that doesn't serve America well, that doesn't serve our future well. As my colleague alluded, Republican Congress endorsed the Constellation, Democrat Congress endorsed the Constellation. You hear people out there say this is George Bush's plan. Yes, it was his plan, but it's been endorsed by, again, a Republican Congress and a Democrat Congress. It's not Bush's plan. It's America's plan. And we need to see it through.

Mr. OLSON. Yes, I will be very brief here. You are very aware of the Orion Pad Abort, the very successful launch test we had I believe it was in late April or early May. Good chance you could get a Time magazine from this upcoming year, and that's going to be on the cover of that magazine. That was a flawless, flawless test. In fact, if you remember, the rocket got off the pad so quickly at White Sands that the cameras that are there to track rockets--I mean they are there to track all rockets--couldn't keep up with it because it was moving so darn fast. And that's the program of record. And I will just conclude by saying what I tell people all across this country. The President and the administration have a voice in this process, but they don't have the final word. The United States Congress has the final word. And I am confident that at the end of the day, Constellation is still going to be the program of record. I thank my colleague, and yield back my time to him.

Mr. OLSON. Yes, sir. My colleague from Utah makes a great point, if he'd yield a little time.

Mr. OLSON. Thank you. I wanted to get back to your point about needing a goal, having some sort of focus. I'm a Rice University graduate, and we had the honor of President Kennedy coming to our school in the early sixties to make his famous speech where he said, you know, we're going to go to the moon, take a man to the moon and return by the end of this decade. That was a clear goal. Here's our goal. Here's when we're going to do it in. We're going to give you the resources to do it. When I go home, when I go back to my district, the one thing I hear from both the government employees and the contractors at NASA are, What's our goal? I mean, what are we doing? What's our target? We're going to go to Mars sometime by 2035 or somewhere in that window. We're going to take 5 years to develop a design and make development designs for heavy-lift vehicles, and then we're going to build that 5 years from now. That's not what makes NASA great. You give these people a goal, give them a time frame and give them the resources they need to do it, they will do it. Every time in our history, they've made some of the greatest technological advancements that mankind will ever know. And again, this administration's budget priorities have nothing to do with that. And again, the ability it has to inspire our kids. The thing we've gotten into with the Russians now, where we're going to have to depend on them to take our astronauts up to and from the space station--and as my colleague alluded to, you can say what you want about our former communist friends, but they have figured out capitalism in a very short time. And, you know, we were paying about, somewhere over, just over $20 million per seat last year. That price has gone up now to just a little over 50. We signed a contract, I believe, through 2014, and it's doubtful, certainly with the administration's budget proposal, that we'll have an American vehicle that can transport us to the space station. We're going to renegotiate that contract. And as my colleague from Utah alluded to, that thing's probably going to double again. This is just a terrible position we've gotten ourselves into. The Constellation is the program of record, been endorsed by a Republican Congress in 2005, a Democrat Congress in 2008. We need to develop Constellation and stay the course and let our engineers and let our space experts and let our astronauts do what they do to inspire our youth.

Mr. OLSON. Certainly commercial has a place in our future, but they are not anywhere near being ready to do what this administration wants them to do, carry cargo to a space station. They're not there yet. They've had one launch. That's a long, long way to go from being able to carry cargo up to and from the space station. More important, astronauts, human beings, that is a much, much greater challenge than carrying cargo, and they've got a long way to go. When I talk to experts back home, they say a decade would be a good number for the commercial operators to have man-rated vehicles. And they've got a long, long way to go. And one thing I'm concerned about is safety. As my colleague from Utah alluded to earlier tonight, safety is paramount. I mean, we need to do what we've done at NASA. The 50 years they've been in existence, they have put safety of astronauts as the number one concern. And it is a very, very risky endeavor that they do. And we've got to make sure that safety is put first, and that's one of my concerns with these commercial operations. Again, as my colleague alluded to, economically, it's no different than what we're doing now. But it concerns me that we're going to have people who don't understand NASA's--the safety that's required. And they think that just because they get cargo to the station, they can get crew to the station. Wrong. You have to do--there's so much more to carry a crew to and from the space station. You've got to insure they're safe. You've got to have the redundancy to the redundancy to the redundancy to the backup to the backup system to ensure that if anything happens to that vehicle from the time it pulls off that pad till the time it gets to the station and comes back down that the crew has the ability to get home safely. And I'm concerned that's one thing that this President's budget proposal doesn't take into account.

Mr. OLSON. I want to thank my colleague from Utah for allowing me to speak a little bit on an incredibly important issue to our Nation's future. Five months ago, the Obama administration proposed NASA's budget for fiscal year 2011. The proposal included surprisingly drastic decisions just out of the blue to cancel the Constellation program, NASA's follow-on to the space shuttle. Constellation will provide a means and a service to utilize the International Space Station for as long as it needs to--plus, to go beyond low Earth orbit, go to the Moon and beyond. I believed at the time that such a dramatic reversal risks ceding American leadership in human space flight for the future. A lot has transpired since those 5 months, but I still believe canceling the Constellation presents more risks than rewards, creates more challenges than solutions, and raises more questions than it provides answers. The fact that NASA and the administration cannot or will not provide cogent, comprehensive details related to such a radical policy change should alarm every Member of Congress. My colleagues and I are mainly concerned about our ability to maintain and utilize the international space station; the impact on the aerospace industrial base and our highly skilled workforce, as my colleague from Utah alluded to; and the financial, programmatic, and crew-safety risk of reliance on unidentified commercial crew vehicles. These concerns have not been adequately addressed by the administration. And I've long supported a balanced program that combines Constellation with an increasing role for the commercial sector, beginning with cargo flights to the space station and, over time, evolving to crewed missions. And I will continue to do so. I'm not alone in advocating this balanced approach. As the heralded Augustine Commission report, when it was released, said that over time, within the aerospace community--even they, even the Augustine report, did not advocate canceling the Constellation. I still believe that this balance exists between government and commercial space. It can exist. And within the budget that's been proposed. Both of these sectors have experienced tremendous successes over the past months--notably the Orion pad abort test in May and the Falcon 9 launch just last month. Yet, rather than focus on the vital elements to maintain American leadership in space, the administration and NASA are distracted with programs that seem to spend money on anything but space. Many of us are astonished by the misplaced priorities within NASA's budget. Instead of building and testing flight hardware, NASA proposes spending $1.9 billion to cancel Constellation contracts. Even now, NASA's selective enforcement of a termination liability provision for Constellation contracts is prematurely triggering layoffs across the country. It's been determined that somewhere between 20,000 and 30,000 jobs could be lost nationwide as a result. And we're not just losing jobs. We're losing American know-how. We're losing capabilities and expertise that will be difficult and costly to get back if and when our Nation decides that it wants to explore again. Our space program does not employ people; it invests in them. And, by doing so, we strengthen our Nation's security and our economic well-being. As if to add insult to injury, last Friday the administration came forward with a request to transfer $100 million of NASA's already limited resources to the Labor and Commerce Departments to funds an interagency task force to spur ``regional economic growth and job creation.'' Our Nation's best and brightest engineers and technicians don't want or need an interagency task force. They'd much rather be retained and put to use with the critical skills building and flying American-built spacecraft. The administration claims to have focused on jobs, jobs, jobs. Yet it fails to recognize the destructive impact of canceling Constellation and shifting $100 million to the Labor and Commerce Departments. So as we look forward to the next 6 critical months, there are some things we must do. We must get answers from the administration. We in Congress must recognize the impacts on our workforce and our infrastructure. We must pass an authorization bill. And, perhaps most importantly, we must ensure that the final flights of the space shuttle and the continuous operation of the space station are done safely and successfully. I am both humbled and inspired that while men and women in our human space flight programs watch us debate and question whether jobs will exist, they continue to excel and drive our Nation towards new achievements in space. Their focus, their sacrifice, their dedication and that of the men and women who came before them have enabled the United States to be the global leader in human space flight. Let us work to keep it that way. If my colleague from Utah would let me, I would like to read this just to show you how important it is to the American people and some of the people that are opposed to the administration's plan. This is the letter that ran in the Orlando Sentinel prior to the President's speech in Florida on April 15. And I think it's worth reading because our Nation's experts and heroes in human space flight, this is how they feel about this administration's budget proposal: ``Dear President Obama, America is faced with the near simultaneous ending of the shuttle program and your recent budget proposal to cancel the Constellation program. This is wrong for our country for many reasons. We are very concerned about America ceding its hard-earned global leadership in space technology to other nations. We are stunned that, in a time of economic crisis, this move will force as many as 30,000 irreplaceable engineers and managers out of the space industry. We see our human exploration program, one of the most inspirational tools to promote science, technology, engineering and math to our young people, being reduced to mediocrity. NASA's human space program has inspired awe and wonder in all ages by pursuing the American tradition of exploring the unknown. ``We strongly urge you to drop this misguided proposal that forces NASA out of human space operations for the foreseeable future. For those of us who have accepted the risk and dedicated a portion of our lives to the exploration of outer space, this is a terrible decision. Our experiences were made possible by the efforts of thousands who were similarly dedicated to the exploration of the last frontier. Success in this great national adventure was predicated on well-defined programs, an unwavering national commitment, and an ambitious challenge. We understand there are risks involved in space flight, but they are calculated risks for worthy goals whose benefits greatly exceed those risks. ``America's greatness lies in her people. She will always have men and women willing to ride rockets into the heavens. America's challenge is to match their bravery and acceptance of risk with specific plans and goals worthy of their commitment. NASA must continue at the frontiers of human space exploration in order to develop the technology and set the standards of excellence that will enable commercial space ventures to eventually succeed. Canceling NASA's human space operations after 50 years of unparalleled achievement makes that objective impossible. ``One of the greatest fears of any generation is not leaving things better for the young people of the next. In the area of human space flight, we are about to realize that fear. Your NASA budget proposal raises more questions about our future in space than it answers. Too many men and women have worked too hard and sacrificed too much to achieve America's preeminence in space, only to see that effort needlessly thrown away. We urge you to demonstrate the vision and determination necessary to keep our Nation at the forefront of human space exploration with ambitious goals and the proper resources to see them through. This is not the time to abandon the promise of the space frontier for a lack of will or an unwillingness to pay the price. ``Sincerely, in the hopes of continued American leadership in human space exploration.'' The letter was signed by approximately 37 astronauts who span all of our main human space flight programs, from Mercury, Gemini, Apollo, Skylab, Apollo-Soyuz, shuttle station. This is a powerful argument, my friend, as to what we're doing, and what we're doing here is wrong for our country's future. We need to develop the Constellation. We need to get beyond low Earth orbit; and we need to explore, explore like Americans have been doing ever since our forefathers left their homes to come to this country.

Mr. OLSON. If my colleague would yield, you're right: it absolutely doesn't make sense. And these just aren't some engineers who have just been doing it for a passing amount of time. These are the best in the world at what they do. These are the rocket scientists of America who led our dominance in human space flight. They have been the best for 50 years. Having been a naval officer, one thing I can tell you, in government agencies like NASA, like the military, you depend on your people to pass down their information to the young people coming up, the new generations who take that information, take that knowledge and exploit it and develop even better vehicles, better space exploration. We're going to lose that. These people are going to walk out the door and take that expertise with them. If we try to decide as a Nation that we want to rebuild that at some point in the future, we're not going to be able to do it. Those people are going to be gone, and we are going to have to start over from scratch and teach a new generation of young Americans the lessons we learned from going to the Moon and spending 6 months in orbit at the space station. We've learned those things. And I agree with you on the terms of the priority of the budget. This is the second largest cut in the entire budget, the Constellation program. I mean, that is the largest cut. So you figure, okay, if we're going to cut this money out of the budget, we're cutting the funding to the agency. No, as my colleague alluded to, we're actually giving $6 billion over a 5-year period to develop global warming research, to transition to these commercial launch vehicles. And I think our priorities are just wrong here. They're wrong for, certainly, our workforce; but they're wrong for America. One thing I would like to mention too that's hard to put a dollar value on, but the ability of human space flight to inspire youth, to get these jobs, to become astronauts and to pursue the American Dream. I mean, I can tell you as a kid who grew up about a mile and a half from the Johnson Space Center, whose Little League football coach was Joe Engle, the pilot of the second space shuttle, and just growing up in that environment, how much those men and women inspired us, my schoolmates, to want to be astronauts, to want to be part of that. And that still exists today. I see it all around my district. The administration doesn't seem to realize all the implications of killing this budget. We're killing 30,000 jobs, the best in the world at what they do. We're going to cede U.S. dominance in human space flight, give up some national security possibly, and we are going to lose the ability to inspire our youth. And I also must add, we don't give NASA enough credit for all the things they've developed for us back here on Earth. I mean, everybody here in this gallery has somehow benefited from NASA and their research up there. If you've got a cell phone, if you've got a satellite GPS, if you've got a pacemaker or some sort of medical device, that's come from NASA. That research has come from NASA, and we're going to throw that away with this budget. That's why we're working very hard to stop it. And I wish the administration would just sit down and talk with us because, Mr. President, you have a voice, but you don't have the final word. The United States Congress, under the United States Constitution, has the final word.

Mr. OLSON. Will my colleague yield?

Mr. OLSON

Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to Marine Lance Corporal Garrett Gamble, who was killed on March 11 while patrolling during combat operations in Helmand Province in Afghanistan. Garrett was a 2008 graduate of Stephen F. Austin High in Sugar Land, Texas. He was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment, 2nd Marine Division, II Marine Expeditionary Force, Camp Lejeune, North Carolina. Garrett was a sportsman and a hockey player--that's right; a hockey player in Sugar Land, Texas--who first considered joining the Marines while a junior in high school. He was known for his big personality, his sense of adventure, and his tender heart. Friends who knew him spoke of his never-ending positive spirit and ability to make the best of a bad situation. He always put others before himself, and did so with a smile on his face and a kind word for those around him. Garrett's mother, Michelle, shared with me a powerful story she learned about her son after his death. She was told that when he was a freshman in high school, he took it upon himself to call the mother of a student he knew to tell her that he was worried about her son. He was concerned that her son was headed down a bad path, and he wanted her to know. Garrett never told his mom that he did that, but it made a difference in the life of another young man. How many times have each of us had an opportunity to make a difference? Do we always seize that opportunity? Garrett Gamble not only acted on those opportunities, but touched the lives of everyone around him. This is posted on a Facebook page dedicated to Garrett and speaks to his character. ``Whether in Sugar Land, Jacksonville, or Helmand, Lance Corporal Garrett W. Gamble approached life with enthusiasm. He was caring, kind, and fun to be around, but he took his job as a U.S. Marine very seriously. ``Garrett spent a lot of time `outside the wire,' and yesterday, that's where he laid down his life so that we may live in liberty. Thank you, Garrett, for the precious gift of freedom. May you rest in peace with our Lord, and may God's angels surround your family until you are reunited. Sincerely, Pat.'' I'd like to close by reading a poem that Garrett's family and friends say epitomizes who he was. It's called ``Ode to a Marine, Dedicated to all Marines, Past and Present.'' It's by Jeannie Salinski. In a crowd you're bound to spot him, He's standing so very tall Not too much impresses him; He's seen and done it all. His hair is short, his eyes are sharp, But his smile's a little blue. It's the only indication Of the hell that he's gone through. He belongs to a sacred brotherhood, Always faithful 'til the end. He has walked right into battle And walked back out again. Many people think him foolish For having no regrets About having lived through many times Others would forget. He's the first to go and last to know, But never questions why, On whether it is right or wrong, But only do or die. He walks the path most won't take He's lost much along the way, But he thinks a lot of freedom, It's a small price to pay. Yes, he has chosen to live a life Off the beaten track, Knowing well each time he's called, He might not make it back. So, next time you see a Devil Dog Standing proud and true, Be grateful for all he's given; He's given it for you. Don't go and ask him What's it like to be in a war; Just thank God that it's your country He's always fighting for. And thank him too for all the hell He's seen in that shade of green, Thank him for having the guts To be a United States Marine. Mr. Speaker, America cannot repay the debt we owe Garrett Gamble. But we can say thank you for his selfless commitment to serve our Nation and thank you to his family for raising such a strong, wonderful Marine. Lance Corporal Garrett Gamble is a true American hero--an ordinary American who did extraordinary things with a short life. A grateful Nation says thank you, Semper Fi, and God bless.

Mr. OLSON

Mr. OLSON. Madam Speaker, I rise to congratulate the Needville Lady Blue Jays on an outstanding season. The Lady Blue Jays fought hard giving it everything they had, but lost a heartbreaking game in the bottom of the 11th inning in the Texas 3A semifinal matchup. Although they did not clinch the title, these athletes have shown they have the dedication, determination, and drive to reach their goals. I know these ladies are the pride of their school and community. The Needville Lady Blue Jays' demonstrate excellence in both academics and athletics, and I applaud them on a great season.

Mr. OLSON

Mr. OLSON. Madam Speaker, I rise today to congratulate the Clements Rangers Baseball team on an outstanding season. They were the Region 3 Champions which qualified them for 5A Texas finals. I congratulate their coach, Israel De Los Santos, for his steering the team to this successful season. The Rangers made their community and school very proud through their play. I wish their seniors Brian Heathcoat, Dillon Huff, Ryan Berger, Kenny Hutchison, Tyler Kruse, Andrew Riddle, Matthew Sugar, Scott Ballard, John Stanford, and Mike Garcia the best of luck in all their future endeavors.

Mr. OLSON

Mr. OLSON. Judge, I think the President gave us the answer to your question there. In his speech yesterday, this is what he said. ``Already, I have issued a 6-month moratorium on deepwater drilling. I know this creates difficulty for the people who work on these rigs, but for the sake of safety and for the sake of the entire region, we need to know the facts before we allow deepwater drilling to continue.''

Mr. OLSON. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. OLSON. Well, thank you for hosting this Special Order tonight on such a critically important issue for the American people. I would like to thank my colleague from Florida for coming by and for giving his perspectives on how this disaster is affecting Florida. I'm going to have a theme tonight, Judge. I was in the Navy for 10 years--a naval officer. We're trained to lead. I mean, in my aircraft, I was a crew of 12--five officers, seven enlisted folks. I was the patrol plane commander, so those 11 individuals depended upon me to take them out, to do the mission, and to come back home safely. To sum it up in two words, the philosophy is ``leaders lead.'' Well, guess what? We are not seeing leadership out of Washington. We've had a very difficult situation. We've had the largest oil spill in American history, and there are thousands of jobs affected by it already: the food processing industry; the fishing industry across the coasts of Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama; the tourist industry. We're hitting the summer season. This is when people go on vacations. We're past Memorial Day. From what I hear, the hotels are about half full. It has had a significant impact on the people of the gulf coast. Yet what does the administration do? Do they lead? No. Again, in a knee-jerk reaction to this terrible tragedy, they imposed a 6-month moratorium on deepwater drilling--all of it stopped. Again, it's a disaster for our economy and for our Nation. Let me go over some of the specifics with you as I know my good friend knows. There are 150,000 jobs that are going to be lost because of this moratorium. That's 1\1/2\ times my hometown of Sugar Land, which the judge mentioned. That's like wiping out Sugar Land and going down to Rosenberg or Richmond and taking them off the map. This is 150,000 jobs. There are 33 rigs currently out there. I've talked to a constituent in my district who has an ownership interest in two of those rigs. I asked him last week, How long can you hang out? He said, Three weeks max. How much is it costing you? Well, the rigs are a little different. One's down around $500,000 a day. The other one is at $1 million a day. $1 million. If this baby goes on, if this moratorium goes on for 6 months, that is going to be $180 million that that company is going to just have to absorb. Yet you know what they're going to do. Guess what? They're going. They're going overseas. He has been talked to. My constituent has been talked to, and he has had interest from Australia, from Brazil, from western Africa, and from eastern Africa already. He is considering their options very seriously because he can't afford to be paying $500,000 or $1 million per day as long as this moratorium goes on. This is going to have a devastating effect on our domestic production of energy. One of the great problems we have in America--and it is something we should have fixed years ago--is our dependence on foreign oil. We all remember 1979 when the Shah fell, when Iran was taken over by the Ayatollah Khomeini and when the Arab world cut off our fuel supply. I was a 16-year-old in Houston, Texas, and I had just gotten my driver's license. So my job was to take the car up when it got down to about a quarter of a tank of gas. I'd take it up and get in that gas line depending on what the last number of my license plate was--odd or even on an odd or even day--and I loved it. I was standing there with my radio and with my window rolled down. Now that I'm an adult, I realize what a disaster that was. It's not gone. I mean it's still out there today. As the judge knows, we've got serious challenges in the Middle East. I mean Mr. Ahmadinejad in Iran is scary. I mean he is trying to get a nuclear weapon. He was here in our country a couple of weeks ago at the United Nations. He sat down with George Stephanopoulos and literally-- this is the leader of Iran--told him that Osama bin Laden is here in Washington, D.C. Let me say that again. Judge, I think Osama bin Laden is here in Washington, D.C. This guy is trying to get some nuclear weapons. He certainly has some oil, and he has friends out there--the Saudis and others--who would cut him off if something happens. What has happened, as you know, too, Judge, just as well, is that this administration has hurt our relationship with our great ally Israel. In 18 months, our relationship with Israel has gone from being one of our strongest allies to someone the world looks at and asks, Is the United States really with them? That has created another dangerous situation where countries out there are going to start taking chances and taking shots at our best friend. Again, what happens at the end of the day if we stand up for Israel? Maybe we get another oil embargo. We can't afford that. Yet this administration's actions by imposing this 6-month moratorium on deepwater drilling in the gulf are going to help that cause. I don't know where to start sometimes. As my colleagues have mentioned, we introduced a bill yesterday, a very simple bill. It's one page--half a page. It basically says, Let's end the moratorium, Mr. President. We had a meeting today with Mr. Salazar. The Secretary of the Interior came over today. I asked him, Do you believe that you were given all of the accurate analysis on the economic impact of this moratorium on deepwater drilling? Did you know all of the facts? Did you know that 150,000 Americans are going to lose their jobs and that those rigs in the gulf are most likely going to go overseas and start developing oil in foreign nations? They're not coming back any time soon. It's a minimum--a minimum from what I've heard from the people in my district--of 5 years before those rigs will even consider coming back because they will have paid all that money to go over there. They're going to sit there. They're going to make money. They're going to decrease our national reserves here in America, and they're going to increase our dependence on foreign oil. Again, Judge, leaders lead. What has the administration done? Well, you know, as you talked about earlier, Governor Jindal asked for some sand, for about 24 miles of sand to place in between some of the marshlands that were going to be impacted by the oil spill. It took our government 3 weeks to approve that. Why? Why? he asked. Well, we had to do some studies. You know, the Environmental Protection Agency had to look and make sure that, if we put that sand in front of the berms, we weren't going to do some things to hurt the birds and the wildlife behind that. You're going to hurt the wildlife behind that, and you're going to damage those birds when that oil gets in there. Put the sand up. Prevent that from happening. Let's deal with that problem. Amazing. The Jones Act. You talked about that. We've got great allies out there who want to help us, who have come to us and who have said, Please, we can help you. What did we do? No thanks. We've got this law that requires American unions, our unions, to man the ships. We don't need your help. Katrina, 2005. President Bush was asked, you know, to waive the Jones Act. He stepped up and did it. Why? Because it was right for America. He was focused on the problem, which was help Louisiana and New Orleans recover from that hurricane. The problem here is real simple, Judge. We've got oil spewing out of a hole in the Gulf of Mexico. We need to focus on that. That's the problem, and the administration is not focused on that. Again, leaders lead. What do we see out of the White House today? Coerced British Petroleum to a $20 billion slush fund, a privately funded slush fund for government to use and spend as they see fit. Now, BP has made some mistakes, and the investigation is not complete, but there is a lot of evidence and indication that they have made some mistakes, have cut some corners and have done things that haven't been consistent with standard operating procedure. And they should agree to reimburse the Americans who have been affected by that. But for the government to force upon them a $20 million concession that the government's going to handle and dole out as they see fit is just not what's in our country's interest. We see what this administration has done if we give them large amounts of money. The first big vote I had as a Member of Congress, almost $900 billion in economic stimulus package. Guess what? Has it stimulated the economy like the administration, like the President, said it would? Has it kept our job rate below 8 percent; our unemployment rate? No. We're hovering about 10 percent. What do we spend it on? You know the answer to that, Judge. Two-thirds of the money has been spent on public sector jobs and one-third on private sector jobs. I'd submit--and this isn't taking much of a chance--that's not how you grow an economy. And yet the administration has now coerced British Petroleum to give them $20 billion as they see fit. Finally, and I've got the President's speech here, about the last third of it didn't have anything to do with the Gulf of Mexico. It had something to do with a much bigger agenda. He was talking about why this substantiated and justified the administration's pursuit of a hydrocarbon emission law--a cap-and-tax, as we call it up here in the House. I mean, again, why are we talking about this when we've got oil spilling out of the Gulf right now. And the answer is: because the administration has an agenda that doesn't have anything to do with the oil coming out. It has everything to do with changing America, making us uncompetitive in a global market, increasing our costs of energy for every American consumer, and getting a big tax increase with all these payments, allotments that the corporations, companies, small businesses across America have to pay. And it's quite frustrating. I mean, when I go back home, Judge, and I am sure you get this, What's going on in D.C.? And, Who's leading? An the answer is, Nobody is leading right now. Again, leaders lead. And that's why I introduced that law that you mentioned earlier to just repeal the moratorium. Get the American people back working on those wells. The President, as you recall, met this past week with the families, the families of the 11 rig workers that were killed in the explosion. Many of them, from the press reports, told him, Please, Mr. President, don't do this moratorium. Don't do this to my husband, who most of these people were born and raised in small towns in Louisiana, like Homer, and they planned on living their lives there, raising their children there, raising grandchildren there. And they see what's at stake here. They don't want a moratorium, even though their family members have made the ultimate sacrifice. It's my hope that the administration listens to the American people, looks at the numbers of 150,000 jobs that are going to be lost. Just the fact that we're going to lose all of our--most of our domestic offshore production of oil, and we're going to take that overseas to foreign nations. And one other thing is the second largest income tax source for the Federal Government is offshore drilling. About $6 billion a year, bye-bye. It's just incredibly frustrating as a freshman Member of Congress that we're going through this, Judge. We need to fight to make sure that this moratorium is repealed, because it's in America's best interest.

Mr. OLSON

Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to commend the Fort Bend Baptist Eagles on their second consecutive 4A Texas Association of Private and Parochial Schools softball title. The Eagles beat Fort Worth Christian on May 14 in Belton, Texas. They won 1-0 behind senior Rachel Fox's 10 strikeouts. Coach Kelly Ferguson coached her third team in 4 years to a State championship. Participating in high school sports builds leadership and confidence in student athletes, and the Eagles have exemplified those traits in spades. The Fort Bend Baptist Eagles are proven role models for their school and community. Through hard work and dedication, they have achieved the goals they set themselves at the beginning of the season. Mr. Speaker, I congratulate the Fort Bend Baptist Eagles on their back-to-back championship titles. I thank them for representing their community and their school with pride.

Mr. OLSON

Mr. OLSON. Yesterday, the Rules Committee rejected two amendments to the defense authorization bill I offered to strengthen national security and provide clarity to an area of law that badly needs it. My first amendment would have prohibited Khalid Sheikh Mohammed or any other Gitmo detainee from enjoying the U.S. constitutional benefits of a civilian criminal trial. Supporters of the administration's plan will reference Richard Reid, Najibullah Zazi, and the most recent attempt carried out by Faisal Shahzad as examples of why KSM should be tried here. But these individuals were either U.S. citizens, reside here, or were arrested here. Congress must understand the difference. Khalid Sheikh Mohammed is not an American citizen. He is an enemy combatant captured in a battle zone. The same can be said of every other Gitmo detainee. These individuals are not criminal defendants, and this Congress should recognize the difference. My other amendment would have allowed Congress to make clear that enemy combatants at Bagram Air Base in Afghanistan do not have the same right to access our court system that U.S. citizens enjoy. Last week, the DC Court of Appeals ruled that three Bagram detainees lack access to rights in U.S. Federal courts. And while this ruling is helpful, my amendment would have sent a clear legislative message that enemy combatants detained in an active war zone do not have special rights. The administration is oddly obsessed with giving foreign enemies of the United States the same rights American citizens enjoy. Enough. Respect the Constitution.

Mr. OLSON

Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to urge my colleagues to perform one of the fundamental duties required of this body and pass a budget. The budget is a blueprint for how the Federal Government defines our Nation's priorities. It's also an acknowledgment of the fiscal situation currently facing the American taxpayer. We have a solemn duty and obligation to inform those who fund our operations what we're spending their money on and how we are paying for it. As a former Navy pilot, I know that you don't take off without a flight plan. The leaders of this Congress are asking us to do just that, guided by one failed principle: more spending. That's not how you fly. That's how you crash. Mr. Speaker, our children and grandchildren deserve better. We are sent to this institution to be responsible stewards of the taxpayer dollars. I urge my colleagues to demonstrate leadership and pass a budget. The American people deserve no less.

Mr. OLSON

Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to express my support for housing one of the remaining space shuttle orbiters in Houston upon the end of the space shuttle program. The shuttle program can be counted among our Nation's greatest achievements. Scientists and engineers envisioned and created reusable vehicles to ferry astronauts, experiments, and supplies back and forth from space to Earth. They have done so now over 100 times, with three more flights to go. The flights and missions of Columbia, Challenger, Atlantis, Discovery, and Endeavour are some of our Nation's proudest achievements, and much like the programs before it, this program has captured our Nation's imagination and taught us more about our universe and ourselves than we ever thought possible. As the program concludes, the decision on where the orbiters will be displayed has been given to NASA Administrator Charles Bolden. Houston and the Johnson Space Center are intrinsic to human space flight, and we are asking Administrator Bolden to give one of the orbiters a final home in Houston. I grew up in the Clear Lake area of Houston, where the Johnson Space Center is located. I spent my childhood living with astronauts and wanting to be one when I grew up. I attended college at Rice University in Houston, where John F. Kennedy made his famous declaration that this country would be the first on the Moon. While many things have changed since I was young, children in Clear Lake still have similar dreams. They learn about the history and the importance of NASA and they are inspired by NASA's achievements every day. Their parents, coaches, and Sunday school teachers are the engineers and scientists who are the backbone of our space program. Some of them are even astronauts who have to miss a game or a parent-teacher conference because they're taking a trip to the International Space Station. A few weeks ago, I enlisted the help of students in the Clear Creek Independent School District from kindergarten through high school to explain to Administrator Bolden why one of the retiring orbiters should be placed in Houston on permanent display. Thousands of children from the Clear Lake area responded to the challenge and wrote letters to Administrator Bolden. The letters were funny and heartwarming. They expressed a maturity beyond their years and a firsthand knowledge of the Houston area's unique and lasting contributions to the achievement of NASA. I was amazed by the passion and dedication and their longing to have one of the orbiters make its home in their neighborhood. Each of these children wrote of their personal connection they feel towards our space program and the joy and pride they'd feel when they called their friends and family from all over the country and invited them to come to Houston to see one of the space shuttles. Mari Archambault wrote, ``With so many in the community involved, it only makes sense to have a shuttle retired in a place where so much of the training related to it takes place. Houston deserves that.'' Savannah Finger thinks it would be ``a good feeling to be standing feet away from a retired shuttle, which really went into space.'' Allyson Stromer drew this picture to show Administrator Bolden how beautiful the shuttle would look in Rocket Park. Bill Kontonassios asked how, ``Space City can be complete without a space shuttle.'' Chloe Molina, from League City, reminded Administrator Bolden what the tragic loss of the shuttles Columbia and Challenger meant to the Houston community. ``Viewing a shuttle orbiter will remind them of the brave crews of Columbia and Challenger. It would be a fitting memorial, for although our Nation lost 14 heroes, the people of Houston lost coworkers, neighbors, friends, and family members in those tragedies.'' Faith Matthews knows that having a shuttle ``will inspire the youth of Houston to become the astronauts of the future so dreams and wishes could take us to Mars.'' Marisol Hernandez, the daughter of an astronaut, knows that ``if Texas is the home of one of the retired space shuttles, I could remember my father's launch.'' The contributions and achievements of the Houston area make our home a logical and appropriate steward for one of the space shuttle orbiters. Houston is ``Space City USA,'' and there's no better place for a shuttle to be. Mr. Speaker, I respectfully ask Administrator Bolden to hear the requests of these students, not just in housing an orbiter in Houston, but in providing them with a future in space worthy of our great past.

Mr. OLSON

Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, each day I am more convinced that I was right to oppose the health care reform bill that was pushed through this Congress last month. All along Republicans questioned how it's possible to increase Medicaid enrollees and cut costs at the same time. And lo and behold, we were right. The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services, or CMS, recently concluded that implementing this bill means health care will be 21 percent of our GDP in 2019, up from 16 percent today. Taxpayers will be forced to spend $410 billion to expand Medicaid to 20 million new beneficiaries, and that's only at the Federal level. That doesn't count the State level spending, in which my home State of Texas has been estimated to incur a $24 billion unfunded mandate over 10 years. Mr. Speaker, there's a better way to provide access to quality, affordable health care for all Americans. We should repeal and replace the bloated government plan with one that makes sense. The American people deserve no less.

Mr. OLSON

Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself as much time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of H.R. 4543, designating the facility of the United States Postal Service located at 4285 Payne Avenue in San Jose, California, as the Anthony J. Cortese Post Office Building. A graduate of James Lick High School in San Jose, Mr. Cortese started working as a letter carrier in his early twenties. He was known for his outgoing nature and ability to work collaboratively to get things done, whether he was resolving workplace issues or organizing charitable work in the local community. As president of the National Letter Carriers Association Branch 193 for over 26 years, Mr. Cortese had one of the longest tenures of any local labor official. Not only did Mr. Cortese help build membership of more than 1,000 local postal workers into a political force, he also helped to initiate a food drive in which letter carriers collected donations for the Second Harvest Food Bank for families in the San Jose area. This program served as a pilot for what ultimately became a national food drive sponsored by the NALC. The program continues today and is just one of the generous contributions Mr. Cortese made to his community and his country. Sadly, this outstanding citizen of San Jose died of a heart condition on February 11, 2007. He leaves behind his wife, Barbara; his daughter, Caroline; his sister, Mary; and his grandchildren, Austin and Ashley. For his tireless efforts for his fellow postal workers and people in need throughout the country, it is fitting that we name the post office in Tony Cortese's honor. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. OLSON

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