Hal Rogers

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I rise to pay tribute to Major Michael J. Rigney for his dedication to duty and service as a Defense Legislative Fellow to my late respected colleague Chairman C.W. Bill Young of the 13th Congressional district of Florida, as well as his support from within the Pentagon as an Army Congressional Budget Liaison. Major Rigney will be transitioning from his present assignment to serve as an Acquisition Officer at Redstone Arsenal in Alabama. A native of Long Island, New York, Major Rigney was accepted into the Hofstra University Reserve Officer Training Corps program in 2000, where he earned a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree and graduated as a Distinguished Military Graduate with the class of 2004. Upon graduation, Mike was commissioned as an Army Aviation Branch Officer. He has subsequently earned a Master's degree in Legislative Affairs from the George Washington University. Prior to entering the Army Congressional Fellowship Program, Mike served in numerous tactical leadership and staff assignments as an Army Aviation Branch Officer, and UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter Pilot. Major Rigney's assignments include Flight School Student, United States Army Aviation Center of Excellence, Fort Rucker, Alabama; Flight Platoon Leader, 4th Battalion 3rd Aviation Regiment (Assault), 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia, and Baghdad, Iraq; Aviation Brigade Future Plans and Operations Officer, 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, Baghdad, Iraq; Commander, Bravo Company, 4th Battalion 3rd Aviation Regiment (Task Force Brawler), 3rd Combat Aviation Brigade, Hunter Army Airfield, Georgia, and Logar Province, Afghanistan; Student, Army Aviation Captain's Career Course, Army Aviation Center of Excellence, Fort Rucker, Alabama. Major Rigney was deployed for 16 months in direct support of combat operations as part of the surge in Baghdad, Iraq, in 2007-2008, and then again for 12 months as part of the surge in Afghanistan, Regional Command--East, in 2009-2010. While deployed, Mike accumulated over 933 hours of combat flight time in direct support of Soldiers in the fight of his nearly 1,300 hours of total military piloting experience. In 2013, Michael was selected to be an Army Congressional Fellow for a year, working in Chairman Young's personal office on Capitol Hill and very closely with the House Appropriations Committee, Subcommittee on Defense. Next, in his role as a Congressional Budget Liaison, working with both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees, Michael ensured the Army's budget positions were well represented and articulated. Michael was instrumental in ensuring that Congress was informed of the importance of key Army acquisition programs for the future fighting force. Mike's interagency coordination and diligent work proved invaluable in assisting Members of Congress and their staff complete the important work of Congressional oversight in support of National Defense and United States foreign policy. Throughout his career, Major Rigney has positively impacted his soldiers, peers, and superiors. Our country has been enriched by his extraordinary leadership, thoughtful judgment, and exemplary work. I join my colleagues today in honoring his dedication to our Nation and invaluable service to the United States Congress as an Army Congressional Budget Liaison. Mr. Speaker, it has been a genuine pleasure to have worked with Major Michael Rigney over the last three years. On behalf of a grateful nation, I join my colleagues today in recognizing and commending Michael for his service to his country and we wish him, his wife Jennifer, and sons, Jackson and Luca, all the best as they continue their journey in the United States Army.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, I rise today first to reaffirm our solidarity with the people of France, our brethren in Beirut, and the families of the victims of Metrojet Flight 9268 who perished over the skies of the Sinai. The senseless and unspeakable violence, the blind fanaticism, the utter and irrational hatred for human life by ISIS, together they present a threat not just to national and global security, but also to the fundamental values that constitute the very fiber of civilization. Mr. Speaker, ISIS must be stopped. The violence must end. And the United States must do more--more to stamp out this evil, more to eradicate the threats posed here and abroad, and more to ensure that Americans can tuck in their children at night with a feeling of security that they will be waking up tomorrow morning for school free from fear. That is why we must support the SAFE Act. It is thoughtful, and it will further one of our principal national security priorities-- keeping Americans safe--as we work to eliminate the threat posed by ISIS. The instability in Syria and the surrounding region has continued unabated for more than 4 years, and we have witnessed an indescribable humanitarian crisis because of the brutality of the Assad regime and radical Islamic groups such as ISIS. In the wake of the Paris tragedy, we must step back and review the procedures in place for admitting refugees resulting from this conflict coming into our country. We can and must implement a system that assists the victims of the tragedy but that also prioritizes American security first. H.R. 4038 will ensure that no refugee from Iraq or Syria steps foot on U.S. soil without the Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI Director, and the highest intelligence officer certifying that each refugee is not a security threat to the U.S. The Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, and the Director of National Intelligence must unanimously certify that a person seeking refuge in this country does not represent a security threat. This is an unprecedented vetting process to ensure dangerous people do not slip through the cracks. I urge your support, all in this Chamber, so we can provide our military and intelligence personnel with the best possible chance for success as they work to keep us safe. Mr. Speaker, I urge support for the bill.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, might I inquire of the gentleman how many speakers he has remaining?

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. Issa).

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Diaz-Balart), the chairman of the Subcommittee on Transportation and Housing and Urban Development.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Thornberry), the distinguished chairman of the House Armed Services Committee.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, may I inquire of the time remaining?

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Frelinghuysen), the distinguished chairman of the Subcommittee on Defense of the Committee on Appropriations.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. Madam Speaker, it has been my goal, as chairman of the Appropriations Committee for these 4 years, to get us back into regular order. When I first came here and for many years thereafter, we passed 12 individual appropriations bills funding the entire government, but separate bills so that every Member had a chance to dissect each of these bills, offer amendments, debate them, fight them, promote them, what have you, but at least everyone had their day in court. Then somehow we got off on a tangent to where we could not appropriate separate bills. So at the end of the fiscal year, we had no choice but to pass what is called a continuing resolution, which means we just continue spending as we had for the last year, regardless of the needs of the moment. That is a terrible way to do business. Agencies, particularly the military, would not have a way to plan their work or to make orders or to deploy troops and the like, a terrible way to do business. We lurch from one crisis to another, it seems. My goal has been just to get back to that business of appropriating 12 separate bills so that we don't need a CR. We hear current needs. In a CR, you are spending money on projects no longer needed, but, nevertheless, they are required to spend the money, for example. A terrible waste of money. So to get back on track, the appropriations process, our committee needs to have a top line number to which we appropriate. We have not been getting that number for one reason or the other. But now in this bill, not only are we getting a number for fiscal '16, which we will now use to write an omnibus appropriations bill for current needs and finish it by September 11, the deadline, we will do that, but it will be made up of the bills that have passed both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees and in conversations between the two bodies. Not only do we have the number for fiscal '16, but we have it for fiscal '17, and that is very important. It gives us a year to plan our work to try to marshal through 12 separate bills for the first time in many, many years so that we, with the Senate, can send to the President 12 bills that have the polish and the content put into it and on it by the Members of our bodies, the House and the Senate. That is my goal. That is why I am so strong for this bill. That is the biggest thing in it from my perspective. It is important that we are helping our folks who are on Social Security Disability to take the worry away from them that they have that that fund will be drying up, which it will be. It is great that we are taking care of the problem with Medicare benefit increases, the interest on Medicare. It is important, very important, of course, that we avoid the default in our debt ceiling coming up momentarily. All of these things you have heard about in this debate are great. But for me, the 2 years that we have now to get back on regular order and stop lurching from crisis to crisis, to stop that business, this bill will give us that great chance. I urge Members to support the bill. It is a good one. It is not perfect, not ideal, by any stretch of the imagination, but it is the best we can do with what we have, and the alternative would be disaster. I urge an ``aye'' vote. I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Sanford), the distinguished former Governor of South Carolina, who is a Member of this great body.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I have a motion at the desk.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the further consideration of H.R. 1314, and that I may include tabular material on the same.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I rise today to present the House amendment to the Senate amendment to H.R. 1314, the Bipartisan Budget Agreement of 2015, an agreement that helps advance this Nation toward our goals of fiscal stability, strong national security, and entitlement reform. These are goals that we have been advocating for years, ones that will secure significant long-term savings, provide our economy with the certainty needed to grow and prosper, and ensure the readiness of our military to meet current and emerging threats. First, this agreement prevents the economic damage of a default, which could happen as early as next week, by suspending the debt limit through March 2017. Next, the agreement includes the first significant reform to Social Security since 1983. These structural reforms will help maintain the solvency of vital Social Security trust funds by closing loopholes, increasing program integrity, and cracking down on fraud, resulting in $168 billion in long-term savings. The agreement also finds savings in other mandatory programs, including over $30 billion in Medicare entitlement savings. As I have said many, many times before--and I have heard it said many times by others here on the floor--mandatory and entitlement programs make up two-thirds of the Nation's budget and are the primary drivers of our deficits and our debt. In fact, we have saved $195 billion on discretionary spending in these last 4 years. In the meantime, the entitlement-mandatory side of the budget continues to zoom skyward. Reforms to these programs are necessary and overdue, and I hope that this bill today paves the way for additional action in the future. This bill also repeals a flawed provision of the President's healthcare law, eliminating the automatic enrollment mandate that forces workers into employer-sponsored healthcare coverage that they may not want or need. Finally--and, in my opinion, most importantly--this agreement provides for new top-line spending caps for the next 2 years. This will roll back the harmful, automatic, meat-ax approach of sequestration cuts which gut important Federal programs and slice the good with the bad, including slicing into our military strength. A 2-year plan, why is that so important? Well, it provides much- needed certainty to the appropriations process and to the Defense Department and all the other agencies of the government, ensuring our ability to make thoughtful, responsible funding decisions over that time. Having established agreed-upon, top-line numbers for both fiscal 2016 and 2017 will allow Congress to do its work on behalf of the American people and avoid a harmful government shutdown or the threat thereof. This is particularly crucial when it comes to our national security. It provides the Pentagon with the certainty needed to plan for the future, maintain readiness, and provide for our troops. These adjustments are fully offset by mandatory spending cuts and other savings, not through tax increases, as the administration proposed in its budget submission earlier this year. These new levels do not undermine our remarkable success in limiting Federal discretionary spending. Since 2011, as I have said before, we have reduced discretionary spending--that is what we appropriate here on the floor--by $175 billion. We remain on track to save taxpayers more than $2 trillion if you extrapolate those numbers through 2024. With passage of this important agreement, my committee stands ready, coiled, poised to implement the details of this deal, going line by line through budgets and making the tough, but necessary, decisions to fund the entire government in a responsible way. We will begin work with our Senate counterparts as soon as this bill is signed. We have our eye on the December 11 deadline, and it is my goal to complete our appropriations work ahead of that date to avoid any more delays, continuing resolutions, or shutdown showdowns that hurt important Federal programs, our economy, and, coincidentally, the trust of the people in the Congress. I want to thank and commend our leaders for their courage, their tenacity, and their resolve. While I know that this deal is not perfect, there are things I would change if I had the chance. The process by which it emerged is less than ideal. I believe, still, it is in the best interest of the country that we move forward with this arrangement. This agreement takes steps in the right direction, from finding savings in our entitlement programs to protecting our economy from a dangerous default, to providing for the future of the Nation through funding certainty. These are goals that I believe we can all get behind. So I ask my colleagues to support this bipartisan agreement today. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Sessions), the distinguished chairman of the House Committee on Rules.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Madam Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 495 and as the designee of the majority leader, I call up the bill (H.R. 1314) to amend the Internal Revenue Code of 1986 to provide for a right to an administrative appeal relating to adverse determinations of tax-exempt status of certain organizations, with the Senate amendment thereto, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky

Mr. ROGERS of Kentucky. Mr. Speaker, I rise to recognize and honor a long-time and trusted member of the Appropriations Committee staff, Paul D. Terry, who is retiring following nearly fifty years of service to his Nation. If one were to describe Paul, he would begin by saying that his qualities exemplify those found in a true American patriot. He is always at work early, stays late, always on task, and never ever complains about the challenges that face him. One might find this hard to believe--and assume that these words are simply tributary rhetoric-- but if you know Paul, you know every word is true. Paul comes from the heart of the plains--Norfolk, Nebraska, a farm boy attending a one room country school with one teacher, sixteen students in nine grades. He made good marks, and upon graduation from high school received an appointment to the U.S. Military Academy at West Point. The day after graduation, he married the love of his life, Ann, and began to raise a family. Paul was an Armor officer trained at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and successfully completed all of the major military education courses, including parachute and Ranger school. His military career took him across the globe. He was first assigned in Germany, then attended helicopter flight school, returned to assignments at Fort Knox and again to Germany. Paul commanded an Abrams tank battalion in Kansas and then served in a variety of important capacities at the Pentagon before his family moved to Korea for his final military tour. Including his Academy years, Paul's retirement comprises over 34 years of service to the U.S. Army, retiring as a full Colonel. He served the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization upon retirement, and, most recently, for the past 15 years, the Committee on Appropriations has been fortunate to benefit from Paul's years of military experience, his expert knowledge of protocols and procedures, and his dedication to our country. During his years in Congress, Paul has been a professional staff member for the Defense Subcommittee. His various portfolios have included operations and maintenance accounts, Working Capitol funds, Department of Defense Inspector General accounts, Civil Air Patrol funding, Army-wide procurement and research and development accounts, and the Joint IED Defeat Organization. Through these portfolios, Paul has helped the Committee provide thoughtful guidance to the Department, including its policies related to all Army ground and air combat resources. It will be difficult to fill Paul Terry's shoes here in Congress. In fact, that task will be quite impossible. But Paul has served his nation well, and the achievement of his retirement is fully deserved. God's speed Paul. You will be missed by one and all here in the Nation's Capital.