Jared Polis

Mr. POLIS

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I was beginning to wonder when our friends would try to connect AIG with forest health and preventing forest fires. Indeed we did not have to wait too long. This bill promotes accountability by requiring the Secretaries of Agriculture and Interior to monitor their accounts and anticipate relevant costs. This is a valuable tool in the long term to improve the efficacy and sustainability of our public lands management. We will note that the arguments being made are purely procedural. We should not allow these procedural issues to get in the way of what is substantively agreed on. I have heard very positive comments with regard to the substance of this bill from both sides of the aisle, indeed giving our land management agencies the flexibility they need to make sure that their budgets are not consumed by signal events and to focus on what they need to do and are, in fact, required to do under law in terms of forest management and forest fire risk mitigation. For nearly a decade, the GAO has called for our agencies to draft a strategy which will identify agencies to environmental and community leaders alike. This bill has garnered strong bipartisan support, and it was reported, as I mentioned before, by a voice vote from the Natural Resources Committee. I want to reiterate the importance of this legislation to thousands of communities across the Nation and to millions upon millions of acres of public lands. This is an excellent opportunity to provide the necessary resources to our Forest Service so they can do the work they are meant to do and indeed must do. I urge the passage of the bill and the rule. I would inquire if the gentleman from Florida has any remaining speakers.

Mr. POLIS. I would like to reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, I believe that it is noteworthy of the issues raised by our friends, none speak to the lack of merit of this bill or, indeed, the 13 amendments that are allowed under this rule which will be subsequently discussed. We must make sure that substance takes priority over procedural processes which could otherwise delay a critical bill for the management of our public lands. Our public lands management agencies remain constrained every day by the costs of fighting wildfires, which will only worsen in coming years from a changing climate and increasing fuel load. Some critics may point fingers, but today we stand here with an intelligent, well-designed, responsible and bipartisan solution that puts our taxpayer money to good use by protecting our communities and preserving our national treasures. This rule allows for 13 amendments, including five from the minority party, and has given fair and due consideration to all the ideas that have been promoted to enhance this legislation, including many that actually impact, at least two amendments that reflect invasive species such as the pine beetle. Thank you, Mr. Speaker. I urge a ``yes'' vote on the previous question and the rule. I yield back the balance of my time, and I move the previous question on the resolution. The previous question was ordered.

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, of the 16 amendments that were germane and were offered, 13 were made in order, and indeed five of those were by Republican sponsors. And I know that the Rules Committee did give every consideration to amendments from both sides and indeed allow a reasonable number for discussion. The issue is an urgent one. By freeing up the pot of money that is otherwise able to be used for single events or catastrophes as sometimes in the past it has been used for one or two events, it prevents ongoing forest maintenance and prevention activities. As my colleague from Florida mentioned, this bill does have strong bipartisan support. I too would like to applaud Chairman Rahall and Ranking Member Hastings for their work in bringing this bill before us. Not only my district, but many other parts of the country deserve a better equipped agency that can work to address the challenges faced by our communities on public lands. The pine beetle epidemic will leave an increased risk of forest fire for many years to come. And the further effects of climate change will put many more strains on our ecosystems and the economy, not just in Colorado, not just for the southern pine beetle in Florida, not just in areas that are currently affected, but indeed in public lands and areas across our great Nation. In many ways, this is one of the costs of climate change which this body talks about in other pieces of legislation from time to time. I would like to reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. POLIS

Mr. POLIS. If the gentleman will yield for a moment before he departs, you hit all the objections. That is everything that we have heard on the other side. Anybody who objects, it falls into those categories. And you have a response. And there is a response for every one of those. All of these arguments fade away. There is not a single argument against taking bold action on cap-and-trade that we haven't addressed here today.

Mr. POLIS. Right in my district, which includes Boulder County and Adams County, green jobs, green energy jobs have really been the fastest growing job sector in the last several years. It has really been a huge boon to us. As my colleague from New York (Mr. Tonko) said, when we are talking about building a green energy economy, we are talking about creating jobs. And we are talking about creating good jobs. Some of this ties into the job preparation we need to do. I had the opportunity to join Representative Tonko earlier this week and learned about some of the projects that General Electric has training wind energy engineers in Upstate New York. It is a terrific program. Near my district, we have the National Renewable Energy Laboratory, and we have a wind turbine testing laboratory. These partnerships with community colleges and partnerships with workplace training are absolutely critical to make sure that people have the job skills of the future. These are areas that America will not only be competitive in but will be growth sectors for jobs. The truth is we are not going to have the same strong economy, the same opportunity to support the middle class lifestyle with the same kinds of jobs that America did in the 1950s. Some of these jobs will still be around. But those are not the growth sectors of the 21st century. One of those critical growth sectors, in addition to health care and others, is green energy jobs. And by having public policy that sets a framework nationally through a cap-and-trade, we are encouraging the creation of these very kinds of jobs that will help us emerge from this recession. One more thing that sometimes gets lost in talking about the benefits and some of the individual things we need to address like, of course, we need a way to get farmers on board. We need a way to broaden the appeal and make sure that the money goes back to those who deserve it. One thing that sometimes gets lost are the costs of doing nothing, the costs of not taking action on climate change. Earlier today I was on the floor, and I have a little vial of pine beetles here, Dendroctorus ponderosae. I used them when we were talking about the FLAME bill earlier today, and the rule passed. But these are in epidemic proportions across Colorado and other States. I know Washington and Florida have an infestation. As a result of a changing climate, we have not had a cold enough winter in over a decade to kill off the larvae of those pine beetles. Now, of course, in any one particular event, you can't determine causality and say it was absolutely this or absolutely that. But the truth of the matter is we have not had a cold enough winter to kill these off. It has killed, in Grand County, in one of my counties, 90 percent of the pine trees. It is sweeping through Summit and Clear Creek Counties. These are counties that our viewers tonight will know because they contain popular ski resorts, Vail, Copper Mountain, Beaver Creek, Winter Park. And, of course, not only is it changing the ecosystems in these areas, it is also creating a huge forest fire risk. This is just the tip of the envelope with regard to the vast, vast environmental changes that will affect our country with regards to climate change. And when we are talking about a farmer supporting himself, the cost of not taking action and having the weather dry up, having more sun where there is sun, less sun where there isn't sun, the cost of that needs to be taken into account. When you compare whatever we're talking about in terms of the costs here, with the cost of not taking action, it is not even close. And I think that is an important point to make as well.

Mr. POLIS. I think that is an excellent point because sometimes when people talk about the jobs that are being created, I think that our viewers might envision, oh, well, you need a Ph.D. for that, or you need to be a researcher. No. The vast majority of the jobs that are created are jobs that are good-paying jobs for working families, where we can do a good job in our high schools running vocational programs to prepare kids into these jobs. In community colleges, again, you talked about the testimony, most of the jobs created require associate degrees, 2-year degrees, we are not even talking 4 years, we are talking a 2-year degree to do a lot of these great green economy jobs. This goes across the entire spectrum. Of course, there are some jobs for Ph.D.s and for college graduates. Across the board, this is going to be a critical growth sector and a growth sector in an area that makes America stronger. This is a patriotic sector. This is something that fundamentally helps the national security needs of our Nation, helps put America back to work and helps address the biggest global issue that we are facing, which is global climate change due to carbon emissions.

Mr. POLIS

Mr. POLIS. Each one with a family.

Mr. POLIS. At top of the chart, it says after 6 years of war in Iraq. I ask you how many more anniversaries must we observe? Is five enough? Is six enough? We have been in this war longer than our Nation was involved in World War II. After 6 years how many more? There was a young boy 12 years old playing video games when this war started who is serving and being injured in Iraq today. How many more years, Mr. Ellison?

Mr. POLIS. You know, our colleagues today from the other side were here holding forth about accountability for this $160 million, where did this $160 million go? Who knew and when? And those are questions that we need to answer, but let me say that that pales--$160 million wrongfully paid to AIG executives, $8 billion unaccounted for, where is the outrage and where is the investigation?

Mr. POLIS. I remember those insinuations that were made by the administration at the time. Many people were led to believe that somehow, in some way, shape or form, Iraq and Saddam Hussein were aligned with al Qaeda, and it couldn't have been further from the truth.

Mr. POLIS. There is great frustration that this war continues to compromise our very important war on terror. One of the most important fronts on the war on terror is the diplomatic front. This war has undermined our ability to engage other nations on the diplomatic front and continues to this day.

Mr. POLIS. We were misinformed and led to believe there were weapons of mass destruction in Iraq.

Mr. POLIS. I have held hands with veterans and their families and borne witness to the tremendous stresses. It is a difficult topic for any of us to talk about without getting emotional. These are men and women who have served our country proudly. We need to make sure that we have the right mental and physical health support services when they return, but most importantly, to bring them out of harm's way. It is hard to adjust. I talk to many who are living at home, who are depressed, who are living in a basement. They had their whole lives ahead of them, have had to serve several years overseas, have become part of that reality of seeing the cost of war, their coworkers and people in their unit blown up in front of their eyes, sometimes receiving physical injuries, sometimes only mental injuries, but turning back, having a very difficult time reintegrating and getting back to work.

Mr. POLIS. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. POLIS. I saw many families across our district that were directly affected by this. And as you know, with that duration of service--well beyond what many of our men and women thought they were signing up for--the psychological toll when they return is terrible. To serve under those conditions for several years in a row, continually being re-upped, that becomes your reality, the existence in that war zone. It is very hard, when you finally do return, to rejoin this reality we have here in this country.

Mr. POLIS. Absolutely. And not only does that divide families, does that compromise the ability of families to provide the kind of family life for their kids that they want to, to support themselves at the level that they want to, not only does it do that, but it divides these families, it compromises our competitiveness as a country, and it weakens our national defense to have men and women serving who would, in many cases, rather be almost anywhere else.

Mr. POLIS. There are a lot of distractions here at home. We have the most severe recession since the Great Depression. We have scandalous uses of public money that our colleagues on the other side of the aisle talked about that we addressed today with regard to bonuses paid to AIG executives. But there are many Americans who, even today, have their sons and daughters, their brothers and sisters, the mothers and fathers of young Americans in school serving overseas in Iraq today, putting their lives in jeopardy every day and, yes, losing their loved ones every day. And you can bet that for those families that are affected by that, that is one of the most important issues to them.

Mr. POLIS. I will.

Mr. POLIS. Thank you, Mr. Ellison. I would like to read briefly from warnewstoday.blogspot.com. Frequently in our mainstream media, it seems as if everything is wonderful in Iraq. That couldn't be further from the truth. Every day, Mr. Speaker, there are casualties and deaths of Iraqis. And yes, our American men and women continue to lose their lives overseas. Today alone, Mr. Speaker, a leading politician from the Iraqi Islamic Party has been assassinated west of Baghdad. Incident number two, a magnetic bomb targeted a police officer's car in the Shaab neighborhood of eastern Baghdad. It went off at 7:15 p.m. The officer was injured and taken to a hospital. Incident number three, from today, Mr. Speaker, gunmen shot and wounded two Interior Ministry personnel when they attacked their vehicle in central Baghdad on Wednesday. Incident number four from today in Kut, police forces found an unknown civilian body, as they do many days, hard to identify, happens often, on the outskirts of town. In Kirkuk, gunmen killed a landlord and his wife when they stormed their house. In Mosul, again, today, Mr. Speaker, an employee from the Displacement and Migration Department on Wednesday was shot by an unknown gunman in northern Mosul. Also in Mosul, a gunman killed a civilian in a drive-by shooting 390 miles north of Baghdad. A roadside bomb killed two civilians when it struck a U.S. patrol in eastern Mosul. And again today, unknown gunman on Thursday killed the Mayor of Dober Dan Village. Again today in Iraq, police found the body of a man shot in the head and chest in a town near Mosul. When I had the opportunity to go to Iraq last year, Mr. Speaker, and talk to people who served on town councils, mayors--these were in the city of Baghdad, autonomous zones, they had their own city council--it was a high-risk occupation. I was informed that nearly a quarter of the people that serve in those capacities on those local city councils have been assassinated, Mr. Speaker. There are many who would have us believe that the situation in Iraq is rosy. While it might be pleasant to believe that, Mr. Speaker, today, on the sixth anniversary of the war, we need to face reality. This war will end when we choose for this war to end, Mr. Speaker. Along with several of my colleagues, and yourself, Mr. Speaker, we signed the Responsible Plan to End the War in Iraq almost 2 years ago. Joined by our colleagues, Representative Edwards, Representative Massa, Representative Pingree, Representative Perriello, and myself, as well as a number of retired military personnel, we put forth a plan not only to end the war, but to ensure that this sort of travesty never occurs in our country again, to restore our Constitution and our liberties.

Mr. POLIS. I would just say that let us hope that next year we are celebrating an anniversary of the end of the Iraq War and not the seventh anniversary of this unjust war in the wrong place.

Mr. POLIS. Let me also add how important it is that the rest of our agenda, the Recovery Act, health care have passed so that our returning veterans are returning to an economy that's growing, that has jobs, that has health care if they were not injured in combat. They deal with the very real issue of health care sometimes for the first time in their lives, if they've been in the military for some period of time right out of college or even before college, and the importance of the Recovery Act, creating over 3 million jobs, hopefully many of which will go to our returning veterans.

Mr. POLIS

Mr. POLIS. Mr. Speaker, the power to tax is the power to destroy. Today I rise in support of H.R. 1586 and destroying the creeping socialism imposed on by the Bush Administration before it takes over our entire economy. Executives and boards of private companies must know that to call in the federal cavalry means that you will be run out of town. I am reminded of Emperor Alexius I of Byzantium, who called forth the Christian kings of Western Europe to help him hold off the Turks at his gates. Help us, he said, prevent the heathens from taking the holy land. The Christian kings of the west responded in force. At first the crusades served Alexius' goals, there were some initial ``bonuses'' such as the taking of Antioch and Jerusalem. But with time many crusaders saw a richer and easier target in Constantinople itself and soon the very forces that Alexius called forth looted his own capital and hastened the demise of the Byzantine Empire. Businesses beware: You do not want the federal government or the American people owning your business. We will hunt down your executives with pitchforks, we will subpoena your boards and haul you before Congress, we will use personal rhetoric to decry your greed, we will make life so miserable that you will leave. And no, our cruelty will not be reserved for your executives. Your workers will be bureaucratized, your competent managers squeezed out, your travel and conferences cancelled, your work hours extended, your incentive structure turned upside down. I dare say that with a different party in the White House and Congress, as unfortunately happens from time to time, your union will be busted and your jobs lost. I will be supporting this bill and hope that it serves as a siren call to executives, shareholders, and workers to oppose nationalization of your companies. By voting for this bill today, Mr. Speaker, we are demonstrating that there is a fate worse than death, and that this is it. And if your business might be ``too big to fail'' then by all means, please spin-off divisions and downsize because ``too big to fail'' means that you will end up in this eternal purgatory of misery, blame and scapegoating. Let your companies die quietly, silently, and call forth not the mighty crusaders from Washington DC lest we loot and pillage your company as the Christian crusader innocently called forth by Alexius I went on to loot the center of eastern Christendom itself. Pillage not our public troughs lest ye be pillaged.

Mr. POLIS. The power to tax is the power to destroy. I will support destroying this creeping socialism imposed on us by the Bush administration before it takes over our entire economy. Executives and boards of private companies must know that to call in the Federal cavalry means that you will be run out of town when you misbehave. Businesses beware. You do not want the Federal Government or the American people owning your business. We will hunt down your executives with pitchforks, we will subpoena your boards and haul you before Congress, we will use personal rhetoric to decry your greed, we will make life miserable. And no, our cruelty will not be reserved just for your executives. Your workers will be bureaucratized, your competent managers squeezed out, your conferences and travel canceled. I am proud to support this bill, and hope that it serves as a siren call to executives, shareholders, and workers to oppose nationalization of your companies. In voting for this bill today, Mr. Speaker, we are demonstrating that there is a fate worse than death, and this is it. And if your business might be ``too large to fail,'' then, by all means, spin off divisions and downsize, because too big to fail seals a purgatory stay of abject misery. Pillage not our public troughs yet ye be pillaged. The power to tax is the power to destroy. I will support destroying this creeping socialism imposed on us by the Bush administration before it takes over our entire economy. Executives and boards of private companies must know that to call in the federal cavalry means that you will be run out of town when you misbehave. I am reminded of Emperor Alexius I of Byzantium, who called forth the Christian kings of western Europe to help him hold off the Turks at his gates. Help us, he said, prevent the heathens from taking the holy land. The Christian kings of the west responded in force. At first the crusades served Alexius's goals. But with time many crusaders saw a richer and easier target in Constantinople itself, and the hordes from the west looted the very emperor's domain who had called them forth. Businesses beware, you do not want the federal government or the American people owning your business. We will hunt down your executives with pitchforks, we will subpoena your boards and haul you before Congress, we will use personal rhetoric to decry your greed, we will make life miserable. And no, our cruelty will not be reserved for your executives. Your workers will be bureaucratized, your competent managers squeezed out, your conferences cancelled, your work hours extended, your incentive structure turned upside down. I dare say that with a different party in the white house and congress as is unfortunately the case from time to time, your union will be busted and your jobs lost. I will be supporting this bill, and hope that it serves as a siren call to executives, shareholders, and workers to oppose nationalization of your companies. In voting for this bill today, Mr. Speaker, we are demonstrating that there is a fate worse than death, and this is it. And if your business might be ``too large to fail'' then by all means please spin-off divisions and downsize; because too big to fail seals a purgatory stay of abject misery.