Silvestre Reyes

Mr. REYES

Mr. REYES. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that the Clerk be authorized to make technical corrections in the engrossment of H.R. 5959, including corrections in spelling, punctuation, section and title numbering, cross-referencing, conforming amendments to the table of contents and short titles, and the insertion of appropriate headings.

Mr. REYES

Mr. REYES. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Chairman, intelligence is critical to every decision affecting America's national security. Whether the challenge is learning the intentions of our Nation's adversaries or detecting the location of the next roadside IED in Iraq, America needs a well-resourced and well- managed intelligence community. This committee's primary responsibilities are to authorize funds for the intelligence agencies, to conduct vigorous oversight over their operations and to ensure that those operations are effective, legal and an appropriate use of taxpayer money. Mr. Chairman, this afternoon I want to thank my colleague, Mr. Hoekstra, the gentleman from Michigan, for working with me in a bipartisan fashion to bring this bill to the floor. I also want to thank the staffs on both sides of the aisle for the great work that they have done to bring this bill to the floor today. This year, as in years past, I have gone to the front lines to see our courageous intelligence professionals perform their jobs. They do this quietly, often without recognition or praise. Many spend time away from their families, often in very dangerous situations and under very dangerous conditions. This bill is the tangible sign of our support for the women and men of our America's intelligence agencies. We're providing robust funding for our most important priorities including HUMINT, language capabilities and technical capabilities. Our principal concern continues to be that al Qaeda is stronger today than at any time since September 11, 2001. Osama bin Laden and his key deputies remain at large. But al Qaeda is not the only terrorist group that has gained strength. Over the past 7 years, Hezbollah and Hamas have become more capable and even more determined. Dangerous states, including Syria, are pursuing nuclear capabilities. There is the possibility that one of these states, or even a rogue scientist, could transfer fissile material to a terrorist group. This must remain our foremost priority and our top concern. This bill invests in people, our most precious resource. It adds funding to enhance human intelligence collection, not only for counterterrorism, but also for enduring and emerging global security issues, such as challenges that we face in Asia, Africa and Latin America, to name a few. This bill also contains a number of provisions that promote greater accountability, including the creation of a new Inspector General for the intelligence community. Our bill will improve language capabilities in the intelligence community by adding funding for speakers of critical languages and requiring reports to Congress to evaluate progress in this perennial problem area. The bill also mandates implementation of security clearance reform to make it easier for first and second generation Americans, many of whom have critical language skills, to serve in the intelligence community with proper clearances. I mentioned earlier that one of the responsibilities of this committee is oversight. Yet this administration has repeatedly failed to comply with the National Security Act of 1947, which mandates that our committee be ``fully and currently informed'' of all the intelligence activities from the administration. This bill enhances congressional oversight by ensuring that the committee receives the information that it needs to perform its inherent oversight function. Working on a bipartisan basis, our committee adopted two provisions to enhance reporting on intelligence activities to the full membership of the congressional intelligence committees. One provision would restrict 75 percent of all covert action funds until the full membership of the intelligence committees is briefed on all covert actions in effect as of April 24, 2008. A second provision would restrict the administration's attempts to brief only the chairman and ranking member and clarifies which information must be reported to our full committee. This legislation also authorizes much of the requests for the foundational activities of the cybersecurity initiative, but it also expresses the committee's serious concerns about potential policy, implementation and governance issues. Our committee is also concerned that Congress does not have a comprehensive understanding of the magnitude of human and fiscal intelligence resources that have been devoted to Iraq, possibly at the expense of fighting the war on terror. H.R. 5959 requires a detailed report to our committee on this very topic. The bill also addresses a number of long-term technical challenges in the intelligence community. It does so by adding significant resources to modernize signals intelligence capabilities and integrate them into the global enterprise. Finally, Mr. Chairman, despite the size of the budget request, the administration did not include funds adequate to keep the U.S. intelligence community competitive in advanced technologies. Research and development funding is our Nation's investment in maintaining our edge in state of the art technologies. Our bill adds funds to four agencies specifically for that purpose. And the committee urges the executive branch to sustain, if not increase, this level of funding in future budgets. In our markup, Mr. Chairman, the committee adopted a number of amendments offered by both the majority and minority members. One of those important amendments, crafted with bipartisan cooperation, will prevent CIA contractors from engaging in interrogations unless the Director of National Intelligence provides a waiver. Our goal is to put this committee back in the authorization business by getting a bill to the President's desk that he can sign. To do that, we can't tackle every single important issue in this one bill. But if we fail to pass this bill, we risk eroding Congress' ability to strengthen and oversee intelligence operations that are vital to American national security. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. REYES. Then I will be pleased to recognize a hardworking member of our committee, the gentleman from Rhode Island (Mr. Langevin), for 2 minutes. (Mr. LANGEVIN asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. REYES. Mr. Chairman, it is now my privilege to yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Schiff).

Mr. REYES. That was our last speaker. I am prepared to close.

Mr. REYES. Mr. Chairman, with that, I will yield the gentlelady from California (Ms. Harman), former ranking member of this committee, 2\1/ 2\ minutes.

Mr. REYES. And can I inquire of my colleague if he has any additional speakers.

Mr. REYES. Mr. Chairman, it is now my pleasure to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Alabama (Mr. Cramer) who serves as chairman of our Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations. May I add, Mr. Chairman, that on a personal note, I'm privileged and proud to have served with Mr. Cramer on the Intelligence Committee for about 8 years. This is his last authorization bill. He will be retiring at the end of this Congress. So I just wanted to thank the gentleman for his service and for his work. He has never stopped working up to the very end here in his last term. Thank you, Mr. Cramer, for your great work.

Mr. REYES. Mr. Chairman, it is now my privilege to yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Maryland (Mr. Ruppersberger) who serves as the chairman of our Subcommittee on Technical and Tactical Intelligence and who proudly represents NSA which is in his district.

Mr. REYES. Mr. Chairman, before recognizing a very senior and valued member of our committee, I wanted to wish my good friend and former chairman of the Strategic Forces Subcommittee on Armed Forces well on his retirement. I have had the privilege of working with Mr. Everett since I have been in Congress on Armed Services and also on Intelligence. I know how much he cares about the issues that affect our national security, and so I want to wish him well in his retirement as well. Good luck, Terry. Mr. Chairman, I yield 3 minutes to the gentlewoman from California (Ms. Eshoo), a senior member of our committee, who serves as the chairwoman of our Subcommittee on Intelligence Community Management.

Mr. REYES. Mr. Chairman, I now yield 3 minutes to the chairman of the Terrorism, Human Intelligence Analysis and Counterintelligence Subcommittee, the gentleman from California (Mr. Thompson).

Mr. REYES. Mr. Chairman, I now yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey, my colleague, Mr. Rush Holt, who also serves as the chairman of the Select Intelligence Oversight Panel.

Mr. REYES. Mr. Chairman, can I inquire as to the time on both sides.

Mr. REYES. Mr. Chairman, I now yield 2 minutes to the distinguished gentlewoman from Illinois (Ms. Schakowsky).

Mr. REYES. Will the gentlewoman yield?

Mr. REYES. The answer is yes. I will be happy to work with you in conference.

Mr. REYES. Mr. Chairman, I now yield myself the remainder of our time. Mr. Chairman, again, I want to say how much I appreciate the cooperation and the work that the ranking member has done to bring this bill to the floor. I want to thank staffs on both sides in particular. I want to thank my Staff Director, Mike Delaney, my Deputy Staff Director and General Counsel, Wyndee Parker, and Chief Counsel, Jeremy Bash, for the great work that they have done. And I also want to thank our Vice Chair of the committee, Congressman Leonard Boswell, who, unfortunately, was unable to accompany us here today because he is recuperating in the hospital. All of us wish him well and we want to see him back as soon as possible. He is a hard worker and contributes a lot to our committee. And I also want to say that this is a good, solid bill. This is the kind of effort that our men and women in the intelligence community serving us proudly throughout the world deserve. Each and every one of them gives their best effort, and they deserve the respect and the support of every Member of this body and everyone in this country. We thank them for the effort that they put forward, and we appreciate the commitment, the dedication and their professionalism, as well as the sacrifices that their families provide for our great country. With that, Mr. Chairman, I want to say that it has been a privilege to lead this committee. We have great Members on both sides that care very much about our national security and work very hard on all the issues that are important to our country and our national security.

Mr. REYES. I yield back the balance of my time.

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

Mr. REYES. Mr. Chairman, the revised Reyes/Murphy manager's amendment does several things. First, it makes clear that the intelligence community may enter into a contract to purchase a generally available fuel that is not an alternative or synthetic fuel or produced from a non conventional petroleum source provided that certain criteria are met. Some members of our committee were interested in addressing this issue, and we, Mr. Chairman, have done our best to handle it within the jurisdiction of our committee. Second, we included an amendment offered by Mr. Welch to require an assessment of the feasibility of employing individuals who have worked for the Federal Government in Iraq or Afghanistan as translators or interpreters. It fits very well with the committee's other reporting requirements on foreign languages. I believe it will be helpful to know whether the intelligence community can benefit from those individuals who have already served our government in Iraq or Afghanistan. And finally, Mr. Chairman, the manager's amendment makes a technical correction to a report on intelligence resources devoted to Iraq and Afghanistan. This correction is designed to ensure that the report captures both collection and analysis resources. So, with that, Mr. Chairman, I urge my colleagues to support the manager's amendment, and reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. REYES. Mr. Chairman, while we have no additional speakers, I just wanted to assure the ranking member that, as has been stated, like the bill, this is not a perfect bill. We're still working through the process, and I assure him we will continue to work together. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. REYES. Mr. Chairman, I rise to claim the time in opposition to the amendment, but I support this amendment.

Mr. REYES. This amendment expresses congressional support of Colombia in its most recent success against the FARC. I thank the minority leader for offering it. The United States should support democratic nations in their efforts against violent terrorist groups such as FARC. We are all proud of the recent rescue of U.S. and Colombian hostages held by the FARC. This operation shows the strength, resourcefulness, and valor of the Colombian military. These qualities were developed through cooperation between the U.S. and Colombia. In the past years, Colombia has made great strides against the FARC and greatly has reduced their strength. Republicans and Democrats alike have supported assistance to Colombia for the past decade. We must continue to do so. I urge my colleagues to support this amendment. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. REYES

Mr. REYES. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and insert additional information into the Record.

Mr. REYES

Mr. REYES. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of overriding the President's veto of H.R. 6331, the Medicare Improvements for Patients and Providers Act. For the past several weeks, Congress has debated an issue that should not be considered controversial--health care for our Nation's seniors. This important piece of legislation addresses impeding cuts to physicians' Medicare payment rates. The issue not only affects seniors in my district of El Paso, Texas, but also hurts access to health care for all El Pasoans. The most important issue to consider when discussing this bill is that the provisions not only stop the impeding 10.6 percent cut, but it ensures that seniors and people with disabilities can continue to see the doctors of their choice. It is also critical to understand that a cut to Medicare will have a significant impact on similar programs. For instance, these cuts would not only affect those covered by Medicare, but it would also threaten access to health care for military members and their families under the military health program, TRICARE. Physicians serving our troops also face the 10.6 percent cut due because TRICARE payments are directly tied to Medicare. Also, private insurance companies look to Medicare to base their physician reimbursement rates. Physicians in El Paso and across the Nation rely on reimbursement by Medicare and other health care insurance groups to cover health care services rendered when a patient does not pay the full cost of care. In a recent survey of Texas physicians, more than 60 percent stated they would be forced to stop seeing Medicare patients should their reimbursement rates be cut. H.R. 6331 is significant legislation that eliminates the cuts to Medicare payments for the remainder of 2008 and provides a 1.1 percent increase for 2009. The bill also extends and improves low-income assistance programs for Medicare beneficiaries. Finally, the bill protects seniors' access to therapy services. I am extremely disappointed at President Bush's obvious disregard for Congress and the people they represent by vetoing this critical legislative proposal. By doing so, the President has sent a clear message to seniors that he does not believe providing them with access to quality health care is a priority of his administration. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of overriding the veto and by doing so, support Medicare beneficiaries' ability to choose their physicians.