David Price

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, our distinguished ranking minority member has asked a legitimate question, and that is, where is the 2011 regular Homeland Security bill? He says it's nowhere in sight. He knows very well it's clearly in sight. The 2011 Homeland Security appropriations bill has been marked up in subcommittee. It's been put together with full bipartisan participation. It directly addresses the Coast Guard and border security matters that he has stressed. And this emergency measure here today in no way detracts from that. But this is an emergency. This is something that needs to be urgently addressed. Unfortunately, the Senate earlier stripped out these border provisions from the supplemental appropriations bill, and so we are here today passing this and getting this done at the earliest possible moment. I would now like to yield 2 minutes to a subcommittee member who has been an important participant in putting this effort together, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez).

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I rise to urge adoption of H.R. 6080, a bill to address the urgent need for enhanced security on our Southwest border. Violence on the Mexican side of the border has intensified because of turf battles among murderous transnational criminal organizations competing for drug, alien, and weapon trafficking business. The bill would provide $600 million to enable the Department of Homeland Security, the Department of Justice, and the Judiciary, in cooperation with the National Guard, to counter this threat, building on the current border enforcement surge. This funding is urgently needed to counter the pressures our law enforcement agencies and our border communities currently face. Madam Speaker, the bill is fully offset. It includes a $100 million reduction in the Department of Homeland Security's border security infrastructure and technology account due to an ongoing reassessment of the SBInet program. The bill also increases, for 5 years, the cost for two visas which permit foreign workers to come and work in the United States. These fee increases would apply only to companies with more than 50 employees and for whom the majority of their workforce is visa-holding foreign workers. The House passed a very similar version of this border security supplemental bill 2 weeks ago, partially offset and partially on a well-justified emergency basis. Because the Senate amended the House- passed bill, we are voting on the package again today. The most significant change the Senate made was to fully offset the bill, adding the visa fee increases. Because of the Constitutional requirement that revenue-generating bills initiate in the House, the bill before us today has been introduced as a new bill but with provisions identical to the Senate-passed bill. Therefore, should the House approve this bill today, it will need to be taken up again by the Senate, hopefully at the earliest possible date. For the Department of Homeland Security, the bill provides a total of $394 million, including: $176 million to hire a thousand new Border Patrol agents. That funding will bring us to a total of 21,370 Border Patrol agents, a 70 percent increase since 2006. $68 million to retain 270 Customs and Border Protection officers and hire 250 additional officers. With this bill, there will be over 20,700 CBP officers working to enhance port of entry operations. There is $32 million to procure two additional unmanned aircraft systems; $80 million to U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, which includes $30 million to pay for four new Border Enforcement Security Task Forces, training and support for Mexican law enforcement partners, and a staffing surge for ICE's criminal alien removal efforts. The remaining $50 million will be used to hire additional ICE investigators, intelligence analysts, and support personnel for a permanent expansion of ICE's presence along the border. These new personnel will focus on disrupting the criminal enterprises that fuel violence in Mexico. There is $6 million to construct two new forward operating bases for the Border Patrol. For the Department of Justice, the bill provides $196 million in support of investigations and crime control along the Southwest border, including $38 million for the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; $34 million for the Drug Enforcement Administration; $30 million for the U.S. Marshals Service; and $24 million for the Federal Bureau of Investigation. Finally, for the judiciary, the bill provides $10 million to meet increased workload requirements resulting from immigration and other law enforcement initiatives. I want to recognize especially, Madam Speaker, the hard work of our border State Representatives who were instrumental in getting the supplemental border security bill initially passed. They have signaled their full support for the House to take up this latest version from the Senate, and we will hear from a number of them during the debate this morning. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to adopt this bill to address these critical border security challenges which, while they are most acute on the southwest border, constitute a serious national threat which we ignore at our peril. With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 6080.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, it seems that a good part of the debate this morning has been about what this bill is not. Both sides have mentioned the need for comprehensive immigration reform, and I couldn't agree more. We cannot enforce our way out of this immigration challenge. I have never met a border security officer who claims otherwise. This is a much broader challenge than simply enforcement or securing the border. I would hope most Members understand that and understand the urgency of moving ahead on comprehensive immigration reform. What is before us this morning is an emergency measure dealing with some border security challenges arising from the cartel violence and gang activity in Mexico which requires an emergency response, an immediate response, and a targeted response. That is what this bill provides. We have also heard a great deal about the 2011 Homeland Security Appropriations bill. Indeed, this emergency supplemental is not the regular bill. Nor is it a substitute for the regular bill. In fact, it is just what it says, it is a supplement to ongoing appropriations, a supplement designed to address this critical situation out on the southwest border which our colleagues on the border have testified to very convincingly here this morning. The 2011 Homeland Security bill is alive and well. It has been assembled on a bipartisan basis after months of hearings and discussions. It has been approved at the subcommittee level, and Members will be seeing that bill very shortly. And believe me, on many of these items in the supplemental, you will be hearing from us again: the BEST teams, the border enforcement security task forces, a proven device; the forward-operating bases; and, of course, the beefing up of the Border Patrol and the cadre of CBP officers. All of these things are ongoing challenges, but they are also immediate challenges. This is an important supplemental to the regular bill. This was true when we first passed it in early July, and it is still true today. Today we are compensating for the fact that border security was dropped from the supplemental appropriations bill by the Senate. But the Senate, fortunately, in recent days passed the bill before us. We are now passing the bill that they passed so as to expedite the targeting of these funds for this immediate problem in the Southwest. This is a much-needed bill. We have had ample testimony to that effect. I urge my colleagues to support it here this morning.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to a distinguished member of our authorizing committee, Representative Jackson Lee.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 6080) making emergency supplemental appropriations for border security for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I would now like to yield 2 minutes to the gentlewoman from Arizona (Ms. Giffords), another border member who from her first day here has worked tirelessly on this border security issue.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, this bill provides a total of $701 million to support high-priority Homeland Security and Justice programs to enhance security along the Southwest border, where violence on the Mexican side is intensifying due to turf battles among murderous transnational criminal organizations competing for drug, alien, and weapons trafficking business. The funding would enable DHS and DOJ, in cooperation with the National Guard, to build on the current border enforcement surge. This bill is largely uncontroversial. It simply re-proposes funding the House already approved as part of the war and disaster supplemental bill on July 1. As we all know, these funds, along with funds to stop teacher layoffs, were stripped by the Senate, leaving only funding for the wars, the Disaster Relief Fund, and Haiti earthquake relief. This funding is required now to improve security on our border and in our border communities. I want to thank the dedicated Members from the Southwest border region who have kept the focus on this issue and are responsible for bringing us here today. We will hear from a good number of these Members tonight. I especially want to thank Gabby Giffords and Silvestre Reyes for their effort leadership on this effort, along with Ciro Rodriguez, a member of our subcommittee who is a tireless advocate of these border communities; Alan Mollohan, who helped shape the Department of Justice items in the bill; and many others who helped substantially: Chet Edwards, Ann Kirkpatrick, Harry Teague, Henry Cuellar, Solomon Ortiz, Ruben Hinojosa, Susan Davis, and Gene Green, among others. Very briefly, the bill would fund several critical initiatives, including 1,200 new border patrol agents to sustain current levels on the Southwest border and build up capacity for when the National Guard is withdrawn next year, and 500 new Customs and Border Protection officers for the Southwest border to keep up staffing at ports of entry as customs and immigration fee funding continues to fall. The bill includes funding for integrity programs to ensure CBP personnel operate at the high standards we expect and to combat efforts by the cartels to corrupt CBP personnel. The bill would fund three new forward operating bases and better tactical communications to enable the border patrol to operate close to the border and to close gaps that can be exploited by smugglers. It would establish four new Border Enforcement Security Task Forces on the border and build up a permanent ICE presence in joint counterdrug efforts in the region, as well as provide for a surge in ICE's criminal alien removal efforts. It would add $50 million to expand support for State and local joint law enforcement efforts on the border. It would add two additional Predator unmanned aircraft systems to ensure better coverage of the Southwest border, in particular on the Texas border. And finally, it provides $201 million for Justice Department staffing to surge agents and U.S. attorneys to high-crime areas in the Southwest border region, to provide more robust assistance to Mexican law enforcement authorities, and to better handle criminal aliens referred by the Department of Homeland Security. On June 22 of this year, the President requested a $600 million border security supplemental, offsetting $100 million of these funds and designating the rest as an emergency. This bill is consistent with that request, funding $500 million under an emergency designation and offsetting $201 million from unobligated balances in TSA Aviation Security, FEMA Administrative and Regional Operations, the Census Bureau, and CBP's delayed virtual fence effort, or SBInet. Consistent with past practices for supplemental appropriations, we consider our challenges on the southwest border as important as our military's work to secure Afghanistan from the Taliban or to promote stability in Iraq, and some would argue that the southwest border mission is more important. That's why this President, like past Presidents, has requested the funding under an emergency designation. I know the minority has agreed with this point of view repeatedly in the past, and I hope we can count on their support now. Mr. Speaker, this bill will help us counter the pressures on our law enforcement agencies and our border communities, and I urge my colleagues to adopt it. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks on H.R. 5875.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire as to how much time is remaining.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to an outstanding chairman of our authorizing subcommittee, Mr. Cuellar of Texas.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5875) making emergency supplemental appropriations for border security for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2010, and for other purposes.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to another outstanding Member who has worked tirelessly to secure the border, Mr. Teague of Arizona.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to an outstanding member of our subcommittee, Mr. Rodriguez of Texas.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Mr. Speaker, I believe we are ready to move to a vote. I appreciate the comments of the gentleman from Kentucky, and I, of course, share his hope that we will in reasonably short order have progress to report on the fiscal 2011 Homeland Security bill. We have that bill assembled. We have put it through the subcommittee process, and we plan to proceed with it in due course. I stress, this bill tonight is in no way a substitute for that bill. This bill tonight is not new. This bill was passed by this House. The exact language, the exact provisions were passed by this House on July 1 as part of a supplemental appropriations bill, and the only reason it is before us tonight as a freestanding measure is because of the Senate's unwise action in stripping these border security provisions from the bill. As for the emergency spending, we did run surpluses in this country in the 1990s. We remember that period when we were actually paying off part of the national debt. Unfortunately, that's not the period we're talking about when we talk about the previous precedents that have been set in this area. The emergency spending that was done during the last administration in this border security area on three occasions under Republican leadership, this was done not at a time of budget surpluses; it was done at a time, in fact, when this Nation was sinking deeper and deeper into debt. We have no more speakers on our side. I appreciate the attention of our colleagues, and especially the work that has gone into this measure from our colleagues on the southwest border. They have been absolutely tireless in standing up for their constituents and in calling to the rest of the Congress and the rest of the country this emergency situation that demands to be addressed. Mr. Cuellar, I think it was, this afternoon said to the press, however, that this isn't just a border matter. This isn't just a border security. This is a matter of national security. It's a matter of urgent national security. And so we're grateful for those who have worked very quickly now, after the developments in the Senate, have worked very quickly to put this bill forward in this form. We urge its passage. We want to send it along to the Senate and hope very much that this bill will be law in a matter of days and that we can get the emergency relief where it's needed. And then, of course, we will address all of these matters more systematically and in a more long-term basis in the regular appropriations bill.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. I yield myself such time as I may consume to respond to some of the pertinent questions raised by our ranking member. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman has raised a series of questions which deserve answers. I will briefly attempt to provide those answers, and then we will, perhaps, bring this debate to a close. The gentleman asked: Why this bill in this form at this point? The answer to that is very simple, which is that it was only this week that the Senate stripped these provisions from the supplemental appropriations bill. Up until this point, our hope was--and, indeed, our expectation was--that the Senate would find a way to pass these border security provisions, or some major portion of them, in the supplemental appropriations bill. It is only because that did not happen that we find ourselves in this position here tonight, offering those provisions as a free-standing bill. The gentleman asked: Does this somehow supplant the regular bill? Absolutely not. As the gentleman knows, we have worked cooperatively in putting together the 2011 Homeland Security bill, and that bill addresses border security in serious ways. It builds on the work we have done in the last number of years to fortify that border, to equip those who are protecting the border and to have adequate personnel at the border. So the 2011 bill is going to address these matters and in a serious way. We still hope and expect to send that bill to the President this fall. This, however, is an emergency supplemental, a supplemental which was debated on this floor weeks ago, which addresses the urgent needs. Our colleagues from the border regions have made it very, very clear tonight, I believe, that these urgent needs really shouldn't have to wait for that regular bill, but it absolutely takes nothing away from the regular 2011 bill. The gentleman made some assertions as to what might have happened had the markup gone forward on schedule yesterday. The fact is that neither of us knows exactly what would have been offered, much less how the votes might have gone. I do want to address one very serious matter, though, and that is the question of offsets, the question of where this bill fits in the overall budget picture. As I said in my opening statement, when the President requested a $600 million border security supplemental on June 22, he proposed the offsetting of $100 million of these funds, and he designated the rest as an emergency. This bill is consistent with that request. It funds $500 million under an emergency designation. It offsets $201 million from unobligated balances from DHS and DOJ. As I said, this is entirely consistent with past practice under the leadership of both parties. When Mr. Rogers was chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Committee and when the Republicans were in control of this body and were in control of the administration, Congress passed three emergency spending bills for the Southwest border, and none were offset. Of these bills, the administration, in fact, requested only one as an emergency. The other two bills contained border security funding, added by a Republican-controlled Congress, not even requested by the administration, and congressional Republicans unilaterally deemed this as emergency funding. The situation on the border necessitates immediate action. It makes it a true emergency. Why would the minority or anybody else consider this a less emergent priority than fighting the Taliban or stabilizing Iraq? No questions are ever raised about the emergency status of those funds. These are missions that are much more expensive, I might add. Finally, let me quote a letter that we got from Mr. Rogers, Mr. Lewis, and other leading Republican Members a mere week ago. This has to do with the kind of enforcement efforts that might be undertaken on the Southwest border: While cross-border criminal activity is not a new phenomenon, it has escalated into an unquestionably clear and present threat to the security of the United States. Therefore, we believe it is necessary to pursue any and all means of addressing this threat within the parameters of the law. Mr. Speaker, I submit that that is exactly what our supplemental emergency appropriations bill does, and for that reason, I urge its adoption. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. I yield 2 minutes to Ms. Giffords of Arizona, who is a sponsor of this bill and has also worked with citizens in her region ever since she came to this Congress to secure the border and to make certain that the citizens of Arizona on the border region were safe and protected.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I rise to honor William C. ``Bill'' Friday, the man whose name was synonymous with higher education in North Carolina for much of the 20th century. This week, he celebrated his 90th birthday. Few North Carolinians are as well known or as widely respected as Bill Friday. Although he has never run for elected office, the former president of the University of North Carolina (UNC) system has been prominent in public affairs for decades and ranks as one of the most important American university presidents of the post-World War II era. As the longest-serving President of North Carolina's public university system, Bill Friday has been a friend to anyone and everyone educated in that system, anyone employed by that system, and anyone living in the vibrant towns and cities that surround our state's public universities. Bill Friday was born in Raphine, Virginia, but he grew up in Dallas, North Carolina, a small community in Gaston County. He graduated from Dallas High School, where he played baseball and basketball, and went on to earn a bachelor's degree from North Carolina State University and a law degree from UNC Chapel Hill. He also served in the United States Naval Reserve during World War II. Friday's entire professional life was spent in higher education. Before becoming president of the UNC system in 1957, he served as assistant dean of students at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (1948-1951), assistant to the President of the Consolidated University of North Carolina (1951-1955), and Secretary of the University of North Carolina system. After a brief period as Acting President of the system, he was chosen to take the position permanently. It was a job at which he thrived. Friday's tenure as UNC president spanned the greatest period of growth for higher education in American history, and he played a crucial role in shaping our sixteen-campus university during that time. Early on, the Council of Advancement and Support of Education identified Friday as the most effective public university president in the nation. Bill Friday was a consistent supporter of academic freedom and integrity. During the civil rights movement, he often served as mediator between student activists and the conservative state legislature. He led a five-year effort to repeal the 1963 Speaker Ban Law, which prohibited campuses from hosting appearances by government critics. And he fought to keep tuition affordable so that limited means would not be a barrier to higher education. Friday was also a visionary leader, and he pursued that vision in many areas. His involvement in the Carnegie Commission on the Future of Higher Education led to gains in North Carolina and the nation in federal funding for student aid in Pell Grants and the establishment of the Area Health Education Centers. He served as founding co-chair of the Knight Commission on Intercollegiate Athletics, which has worked persistently to reform college athletics. Friday helped to develop the National Humanities Center; he supported the establishment of North Carolina public radio through UNC; and he was instrumental in the creation and growth of the Research Triangle Park. As Charlotte Observer associate editor Jack Betts noted about Bill Friday: ``He often seemed to be everywhere, but he was always no further away than a telephone, willing to talk about state history, fully cognizant of the state's many needs and always enthusiastic about the progress the state could make through its various educational enterprises, especially the university. He was a university president, but at heart he has always been a teacher.'' I can certainly attest to this personally as the recipient of many Bill Friday notes and calls and as one who has benefitted enormously from his generous and wise counsel. Friday has mentored university leaders, governors and presidents in the course of his public life and he has received a multitude of accolades--including just about every honor North Carolina has to bestow. These honors include the American Council on Education's National Distinguished Service Award for Lifetime Achievement, the National Humanities Medal, the American Academy for Liberal Education's Jacques Barzun Award, and the John Hope Franklin Award. In 2004, the N.C. General Assembly held a special joint session to honor Friday's life and work. The legislature and then-Gov. Mike Easley presented William and Ida Friday with the Order of the Long Leaf Pine award for service to North Carolina. Now retired from the university, Friday heads the William R. Kenan, Jr., Fund and the Kenan Charitable Trust. Friday also currently hosts a public television talk show, North Carolina People, which he began while still president of the UNC system. The show brings Tar Heel state residents insights from leaders in education, politics, business, and the arts, adding richly to our public discourse. Even in retirement, Friday keeps an office at UNC Chapel Hill and serves as a formal and informal sounding board and dispenser of wisdom for students, administrators and others. The University of North Carolina System has given its state so much: public servants, educators and other professionals, small and large business leaders, innovative researchers, informed citizens: these make up the fabric that weaves together our communities. At 90, Bill remains fiercely dedicated to the idea that education is uniquely powerful, giving young people the tools they need to shape their lives, live out their dreams, and better society. As Bill himself would insist, he has not achieved these great things on his own. He had the good fortune and good sense in 1942 to marry his wife Ida, who has been a lifetime partner in his service and civic endeavors. Their names grace a continuing education center in Chapel Hill and an education innovation center in Raleigh, both of which host hundreds of gatherings each year, promoting collaboration and furthering the causes to which the Fridays' lives have been dedicated. Fortunately, nothing Bill Friday has done in the last few years suggests his life will begin to slow down as he turns 90. I am honored to know Bill and to call attention to his service to our state and her citizens. The Tarheel State owes much to him.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Finally, the bill expands aid to State and local partners along the border, expanding the grant assistance under Operation Stonegarden to State and local law enforcement in cooperation with DHS. Mr. Speaker, this Obey amendment would greatly enhance our border security. I urge its adoption.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, as the chairman of the Homeland Security Appropriations Subcommittee, I am happy to remind our colleagues of the provisions in this bill that will enhance border security. The Obey amendment will add money for urgent needs, to address the alarming level of violence attributable to Mexican gangs and drug cartels. It will increase the presence of critical Border Patrol and Customs personnel at the border, and it will strengthen the protection of jeopardized communities. There are four critical aspects of these border provisions: First, the Obey amendment will strengthen enforcement between ports of entry to deter and apprehend smugglers and illegal crossings. That means 1,200 new Border Patrol agents. It means up to three additional forward operating bases, and it will provide two new unmanned aircraft systems for CBP to patrol the border. Second, the Obey amendment will tighten enforcement at ports of entry while aiding legitimate travel and commerce. It will sustain hundreds of critical CBP officer positions at risk of being cut because of declining fee collections. It will add 500 CBP officers for inspection and enforcement at ports of entry, inbound and outbound, to crack down on drugs, weapons, cash, and alien traffickers. Third, the bill enhances Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE's) investigative operations on the border and their cooperation with our Mexican partners to target the cartels, their criminal enterprises, and their violent henchmen. Four new Southwest Border Enforcement Security Task Forces. Additional vetted law enforcement units with the Government of Mexico. A 120-day surge in the ICE Joint Criminal Alien Removal Task Force and Criminal Alien Programs. Training for Mexican officials on investigations of transnational drug smuggling, money laundering, human trafficking, and child exploitation.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. Madam Speaker, I rise today to commend to my colleagues' attention a recent public address by the gentleman from California, Mr. Dreier, on the occasion of Memorial Day. For the past five years, I have had the privilege of serving with Mr. Dreier on the House Democracy Partnership, a bipartisan commission established by the House of Representatives in 2005 that works to strengthen the capacity of legislatures in emerging and developing democracies around the world. Mr. Dreier was the commission's first chairman and now serves as its ranking Republican member. As the current chairman, I have had the privilege of working closely with him as we have sought to support our fellow legislators and their staffs in countries ranging from Haiti and Peru to Indonesia and East Timor. On this Memorial Day, Mr. Dreier reflected on the work of the House Democracy Partnership and the relationship between the sacrifices made by our nation's men and women in uniform and the cause of freedom around the world. I have included his eloquent remarks in their entirety below: I have been privileged to stand here on several previous occasions, and have had the honor of getting to know many of you. Every year we come together on Memorial Day to remember the war dead and to honor their service. We are humbled by their sacrifice. But I believe we honor them fully not just in solemn remembrance, but in commemorating their legacy as well. Their legacy, first and foremost, is our 221-year history as a nation that was founded in, and has prospered by, a commitment to liberty. We have faced many crises. But we have endured because the men and women of our armed forces have fought to defend the principles on which our country was built. These principles are enduring because they are universal. Across all cultural and geographic boundaries, people want to live in liberty. Which is why the legacy of those we honor today is evidenced not just here at home, but in the many fledgling democracies around the world. Democratic governance is taking hold in places that previously knew only totalitarianism or military dictatorship, like Macedonia and Indonesia. Places that were plagued with violence and chaos, like Colombia and Liberia. Places that were controlled by a foreign power, like East Timor and Kosovo. In some of these places, our military has played a direct role, such as the former Yugoslavia. But their greatest influence has been simply in defending the principles that offer the only path to lasting peace. We have seen throughout our history that wherever there is tyranny, there can be no real security. Wherever repression and poverty allow resentments and extremism to spread, violence will always follow. And because repression's greatest enemy is liberty, the violence that follows will always threaten our security and our interests. In recognition of this fact, I had the privilege of founding a commission in the House of Representatives called the House Democracy Partnership. For the last five years, this commission has worked with a number of new and reemerging democracies, like those I named before, to provide support and assistance in their quest to solidify their democratic gains. As we engage with the popularly elected representatives of these countries, the legacy of our armed forces provides the context for this work. We act with the knowledge that their sacrifice is what has enabled the United States to serve as a model for the rest of the world, and the recognition that failure to see democracy take hold threatens our security. Of the 15 countries with which the House Democracy Partnership is currently working, the stakes are highest in Afghanistan and Pakistan, ground zero for the struggle against violent extremism. Nearly 100,000 of our men and women in uniform are currently in harm's way in the region, as we all know very well. They are doing what they have always done: valiantly defending the people of the United States. But we want them to be able to complete their mission and come home as soon as possible. That means that the Afghan people must build a stable, peaceful, democratic government that will neither threaten the U.S. nor allow a breeding ground for terrorism to once again take root. As difficult as that process is, the right seeds have been planted. I have seen former adversaries in war sit around a table in Kabul, discussing the path forward for the Afghan people. I have worked with legislators in Islamabad who are determined to root out all forms of terrorism until it is completely eradicated from Pakistani territory. These democratic efforts are made possible by the work that our troops are doing. Our service members are working to create the security and political space for these efforts to be successful. This is a Herculean task that can seem impossible at times. But if our nation's history demonstrates anything, it is the power of liberty and democratic principles. And our soldiers, sailors, marines, airmen and guardsmen have been their guarantor for 221 years. Today we honor all who have served, all who have made the ultimate sacrifice, and all who are currently in harm's way. And we honor them with the recognition that the fruit of their sacrifice is evident not just here at home, but around the globe.

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina

Mr. PRICE of North Carolina. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of an amendment extending oversight and accountability for security contractors overseas, for contractors performing security functions, as one element of this en bloc amendment. The gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt) joins me in this effort, and I also want to acknowledge the leadership of other Members, especially that of Ms. Schakowsky, in this critical area of defense policy. This amendment is brief and straightforward. It would simply extend a section of the fiscal year 2008 defense authorization bill that strengthened the oversight of private security contractors in Iraq and Afghanistan to additional areas in which there is or could be a significant security contractor presence. I don't need to recount here, Mr. Chairman, the arguments in favor of greater oversight and accountability for armed contractors, particularly those operating in areas in which our military is operating. The high-profile incidents of contractor misconduct that have punctuated our campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan should speak for themselves. In responding to these incidents, Congress has come a long way toward improving Federal management and oversight of private security contractors, most notably through several important reforms, including those in the fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill. These reforms, many of which were drawn from my broader contractor accountability legislation, have been credited with improving both the operational capabilities of the Armed Forces in Iraq and Afghanistan and Congress' ability to conduct effective oversight of private security contractors. As our military faces new and emerging threats in other areas of the world, it is critical that these effective oversight measures be maintained and extended. This amendment seeks to do just that by extending several of the key reforms enacted in 2008 to additional areas with significant contractor presence. The amendment lists four such areas by name, but its broader intent is to give the Defense Department, the State Department, and USAID the tools and authority they need to apply these coordination and oversight mechanisms to any area in which our military is conducting significant operations. I want to thank Chairman Skelton, Ranking Member McKeon and the Armed Services Committee for their leadership in drafting this legislation as well as for their support and cooperation in the effort to improve transparency and accountability in the use of contractors. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment.