Ike Skelton

Mr. SKELTON

Mr. SKELTON. Madam Speaker, let me take this moment to recognize the work of Bernie Fechtel of Jefferson City, Missouri. A successful businessman in central Missouri, Mr. Fechtel served as the Chairman of the Board for the Jefferson City Chamber of Commerce in 2007. During his time as Chairman, the local Chamber was awarded the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry's ``Chamber of the Year'' award in recognition of the Chamber's effectiveness and efficiency in implementing its economic goals. Jefferson City is the fifth city in history to receive this distinguished award. Mr. Fechtel will continue to serve the Jefferson City Chamber of Commerce in 2008 as it's Chairman-Emeritus. I trust that Members of the House will join me in thanking Bernie Fechtel for his outstanding leadership and vision.

Mr. SKELTON

Mr. SKELTON. Madam Speaker, let me take this moment to recognize the exemplary and extended service of Bob and Rosalee Welling, who will receive the Distinguished Service Award from the University of Central Missouri. Bob received his juris doctorate from St. Louis University School of Law. Following law school he spent 2 years in the United States Army and then moved to Warrensburg, MO, to begin a 50-year career in law. In 1985, Bob received the Missouri Bar President's Award. Bob served as president of the Missouri State Board of Education and as a member of the Board of Directors of the National Association of State Boards of Education. He was a former chair on the board's Governmental Affairs Committee and was a mentor in the association. Bob has also presided as chair of the Regional Council for Children's Mercy Hospital in Kansas City, MO. Currently, Bob is a member of Children's Mercy Hospital Planned Gift Council and board member of its nonprofit subsidiary, Family Health Partners. He is also serving as a gubernatorial appointee to the Missouri Military Preparedness and Enhancement Commission. Rosalee graduated from the University of Central Missouri with a bachelor's degree in education and a master's degree in speech pathology and audiology. Following graduate school, she served as a physical education and health teacher in the Raytown School District and then as a speech pathologist at the Children's Therapy Center. She then joined the University of Central Missouri and taught until her retirement in 2002. While at the university, she served for 13 years as director of the Early Childhood Communication Special Education Preschool, spent 6 years as the coordinator of Clinical Services in the Welch-Schmidt Center for Communication Disorders, and was guest lecturer in the Department of Phonetics at the University of Helsinki, Finland. Today, Rosalee is director emeriti of the University of Central Missouri Alumni Association Board and the Foundation Board. She also serves as a tutor in the Johnson County Adult Literacy Program. The Wellings are known in the State of Missouri for their outstanding civic involvement and volunteer service. I trust that Members of the House will join me in wishing Bob and Rosalee Welling and their family the best in their future endeavors.

Mr. SKELTON

Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, I am pleased that the Congress and the President have come together to find common ground on the fiscal year 2008 budget. It is often said that politics is the art of compromise, and the bill we are considering today--H.R. 2764--represents a compromise position that allows the Congressional majority to advance some of its priorities while adhering to the President's overall budgetary constraints. H.R. 2764 funds a number of programs that are important to the American people, including investments in education, life-saving medical research, law enforcement, border security, veterans' health care, and energy independence initiatives. H.R. 2764 is especially good for rural America. The bill rejects deep cuts that were proposed by the President in rural health care, housing, economic development, Internet access, and law enforcement programs. At the same time, the bill nearly doubles funds available for renewable energy loans and grants in rural areas, commits significant resources to fix aging bridges, and adds $1 million to the President's request for rural drinking water and waste water infrastructure projects. Additionally, the measure slashes funding for the Administration's efforts to create a National Animal Identification Program, reducing it by $23 million. H.R. 2764 also extends through December 31, 2007, most of the agricultural disaster assistance programs included as part of the emergency supplemental spending bill signed into law earlier this year. These programs allow many American farmers to recoup some losses associated with drought and other natural disasters in 2005, 2006, or in the first two months of 2007. Between February and December of this year, Missouri farmers have seen their fair share of damaging weather events. I am pleased that Congress is extending disaster programs that may be beneficial to qualifying Show-Me State producers. The measure also funds U.S. military efforts in Afghanistan and Iraq. And, while I would have preferred to send the President war funding legislation that sets a goal of redeploying most American troops from Iraq by next Christmas, H.R. 2764 will provide our service men and women with the resources they need to do their jobs while serving in harm's way and will alleviate any need by the Administration to reallocate funds from domestic military operations. H.R. 2764 represents a compromise bill that is in the best interest of our Nation. I am pleased to support its passage and urge the President to sign it into law.

Mr. SKELTON

Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, pursuant to House Resolution 860, I call up the conference report on the bill (H.R. 1585) to authorize appropriations for fiscal year 2008 for military activities of the Department of Defense, for military construction, and for defense activities of the Department of Energy, to prescribe military personnel strengths for such fiscal year, and for other purposes, and ask for its immediate consideration.

Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks on this conference report.

Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise today in strong support of the conference report on H.R. 1585, the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2008. I must tell you, Mr. Speaker, that I'm so extremely proud of the members of the Armed Services Committee, of all of those who worked hard in and out of the Armed Services Committee to make this happen. And a special thanks to the fantastic staff that we have supporting us, Erin Conaton, Bob Simmons, who is the leader of those on the other side of the aisle regarding the staff, and everyone just pitched in so very, very well. Mr. Speaker, this is a good bill. As a matter of fact, I think it's the best bill in decades that this Congress has put forward. It's good for our troops, good for our families, it will help improve readiness of our Armed Forces, and it will bring new significant oversight to the Department of Defense in areas where oversight was sorely needed in the past. Let me begin by saying that the Armed Services Committee has remained committed to a tradition of bipartisanship, and we appreciate that, and we have all throughout the year. Special thanks to our ranking member, the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter) and today to the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Saxton) who's been such a great help through the years. When the 110th Congress began, we laid out, from the Armed Services Committee, six strategic priorities, and we have met them in this legislation. The bill before us is the culmination of our efforts. It addresses strategic priorities in important ways. It includes a 3.5 percent across-the-board pay raise, it protects the troops and their families from escalating health care fees, and includes well over 100 other measures, both large and small, regarding quality of life. It is especially important because it adopts the elements of the Wounded Warrior Act which passed this House earlier in the year 426-0. And I think that that, in and of itself, is a major victory for those in uniform. It addresses readiness. It establishes a new, high level board of military officers, the Defense Materiel Readiness Board, to grapple with the growing shortfalls confronting the Armed Forces. The bill allocates $1 billion to a Strategic Readiness Fund. The bill will bring much needed oversight to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It does so by instituting new reporting requirements developed on a bipartisan basis. The bill builds on the successful passage of H.R. 1, which fully implemented the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. H.R. 1585 authorizes the funding required to carry forward that act by continuing, and this is important, and expanding the Department of Defense's cooperative threat reduction program and the Department of Energy's nuclear nonproliferation programs. Mr. Speaker, these programs address perhaps the single largest threat to the American homeland, the threat of nuclear terrorism and other weapons of mass destruction, and we address that very carefully in this bill. We also include $17.6 billion for the mine resistant ambush vehicle, which is known as MRAP, to protect our troops in Iraq and in future conflicts. It does a great deal in the area of funding for our various ships, including production of two Virginia-class submarines per year by 2010, and adds eight C-17s to meet the needs of the demands of global power projection. One of the most important elements of this bill, in addition to the money and the hardware, is a requirement that the Department of Defense perform a quadrennial review of its roles and missions. The first time this was addressed, and the last time it was addressed thoroughly, was back in 1948 at the behest of President Harry Truman and his then Secretary of Defense, James Forestal. The review we require in this bill causes a full examination as to whether the Department of Defense is truly developing the core competencies and capabilities to perform the missions assigned to it and whether those capabilities are being developed in the most joint and efficient way by the military services. Much has changed since 1948. Technology has changed and has blossomed and mushroomed, and that's why it's important that we update, by way of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Secretary of Defense, the Key West agreement that was met back in that year of 1948. I am very, very pleased with this bill, Mr. Speaker. I think that history will say that this one was a comprehensive, if not the most comprehensive, Defense authorization bill that our Congress has passed in decades. Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record, regarding the Key West agreement of 1948, a statement by Sam Rushie, who is the supervisory archivist of the Truman Library in Independence, Missouri. On December 19, 1945--3 months after the end of the Second World War--President Truman recommended to Congress that the War and Navy Departments be unified in a new Department of National Defense. In his statement to Congress, Truman declared, ``One of the lessons which have most clearly come from the costly and dangerous experience of this war is that there must be unified direction of land, sea and air forces at home as well as in all other parts of the world where our Armed Forces are serving. ``We did not have that kind of direction when we were attacked four years ago--and we certainly paid a high price for not having it.'' On May 13, 1946, Truman met with Secretary of War Patterson and Secretary of the Navy Forrestal, and he urged that the Army and the Navy reach a compromise on the problem of unification. The President's proposals were finally enacted on July 26, 1947, as the National Security Act, the main feature of which was the establishment of a unified Department of Defense. That same day, the President issued Executive Order 9877, an attempt to define the functions of the Army, the Navy, and the newly created Air Force within the unified National Military Establishment. However, bickering between the services continued, especially over issues that the Executive Order had failed to address specifically. Many of these issues concerned the functions of the Navy. The Army regarded the Navy's Marine Corps as a rival for control of combat operations on land; similarly, the Air Force viewed Naval Aviation as an infringement on its jurisdiction over air operations. In an effort to resolve these conflicts, Secretary of Defense James Forrestal summoned the Joint Chiefs of Staff to a meeting at Key West, Florida in March 1948. Following suggestions made by Forrestal, the Joint Chiefs drafted a directive entitled ``Functions of the Armed Forces and the Joint Chiefs of Staff,'' popularly known as the ``Key West Agreement.'' Forrestal submitted this proposal to the President in late March. On April 21, 1948, the President issued Executive Order 9950, revoking his earlier executive order. This cleared the way for the Secretary of Defense to issue the new directive that same day. With modifications, the Key West Agreement continues to govern responsibilities within the armed forces to this day. In contrast to the broad language of the earlier executive order, Forrestal's directive specified the primary and secondary responsibilities of each branch of the service. In a tenuous compromise, it was agreed that the Navy would not establish a strategic air component, but would be permitted to have aircraft carriers and use its aircraft against inland targets. (This was interpreted by the Navy as an endorsement of the projected new supercarrier, the USS United States.) The Air Force would retain primary responsibility for strategic air operations and air defense. At the same time, it was agreed that the Marine Corps would be preserved, but would be limited in size to four divisions, and would cooperate with the Army in planning amphibious operations. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to my friend and colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Ortiz), who is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Readiness.

Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, it gives me pleasure to yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Mississippi (Mr. Taylor), my friend who is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Seapower and Expeditionary Forces.

Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, first let me thank my friend from Mississippi for the historical reference back to 1944 regarding the fuel situation, and I think that the subcommittee is making a substantial contribution in requiring the nuclear ships that it does. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to my friend and colleague, the chairman of the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, the gentleman from Arkansas, Dr. Snyder.

Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to my good friend, the gentlelady from California, who is also the chairwoman of the Subcommittee on Strategic Forces, Mrs. Tauscher.

Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to my good friend and colleague from California, who is the chairwoman on the Subcommittee on Personnel, Mrs. Davis.

Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, we have a good number of provisions that have not been fully discussed today, including contracting reform and acquisition reform. We did speak of roles and missions. But I wish to stress, Mr. Speaker, of the years I have had the privilege of serving in this body, this has to be the best, most comprehensive, troop-friendly, family-friendly and readiness-friendly bill that we have ever had. When it first came to the House before we had our conference, it had a very, very strong vote here, and, Mr. Speaker, I hope we have as strong a vote when we seek the final passage on this bill today.

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

Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to my friend the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Smith), who is also the chairman of the Subcommittee on Terrorism and Unconventional Threats and Capabilities.

Mr. SKELTON. Will the gentleman from Alabama yield, please?

Mr. SKELTON. I thank the gentleman, and I do appreciate his concern on this issue. Protecting classified material of course is the utmost importance, and the standards for protecting this material should be consistent across government as well as industry. In that regard, I intend to work very closely with my friend, the gentleman from Alabama, on the issue, starting with the request of the Department of Defense to obtain their plans for meeting the 2012 deadline for phasing out containers used by defense contractors that have not been approved by the GSA.

Mr. SKELTON. It appears we have no additional speakers except myself.

Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, before I make my closing remarks, I would yield 1 minute to my friend from Iowa, a member of the Armed Services Committee, Mr. Loebsack.

Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

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

Mr. SKELTON

Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, I send to the desk a concurrent resolution (H. Con. Res. 269) and ask unanimous consent for its immediate consideration.

Mr. SKELTON

Mr. SKELTON. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman for yielding to me. Of course, I rise in support of the rule for this conference report, the National Defense Authorization Act. I will speak more at length on this issue later today after we have the privilege of passing the rule on this floor. But, I must say, Madam Speaker, that in my years of being here in the Congress, this is the most comprehensive, well thought-out and studied authorization bill that we have had. It's excellent for the troops, it's excellent for the families, and their health care. It makes great strides in the area of readiness. I just feel like bragging on all the members of the House Armed Services Committee on both sides of the aisle. Of course, it couldn't be done without the crackerjack staff that we have, and we are just absolutely blessed with the dedicated staff that we have, Erin Conaton, who's the staff director. We owe all of the members of the staff our great appreciation. This has been months of hard work. We have a proud tradition in the Armed Services Committee as being bipartisan. It helps with the problems of readiness, including equipment, training and people. It gives an across-the-board 3.5 percent pay raise, protects them from escalating fees for health care. It includes over 100 measures, large and small, for quality of life. We combined the best elements of the Wounded Warrior Act that was passed here in the House by 426-0, as well as a companion bill that passed the Senate. We have many parts of this bill that are new, which will help us in the area of national security all the more. I will, at length, discuss them when we take the bill up at a later moment today. Madam Speaker, I rise in support of the rule on the conference report for H.R. 1585, the National Defense Authorization Act for fiscal year 2008. I will speak at more length about this bill later today. This legislation represents the outcome of months of hard work by the House Armed Services Committee and our colleagues in the other body. It is a good bill and it is a bipartisan bill in the proud tradition of the Armed Services Committee. It is good for our troops and their families. It will help improve the readiness of our Armed Forces, who face dire problems with all elements of readiness including equipment, training, and people. And it will bring significant new oversight to the Department of Defense in areas where oversight is sorely needed. Let me just mention a few high points. H.R. 1585 includes a 3.5 percent across-the-board pay raise for the troops, protects them from escalating fees for health care, and includes well over 100 other measures, both large and small, to improve their quality of life. Just as important, it upholds the debt of honor the nation owes to its injured and fallen veterans, by combining the best elements of the Wounded Warrior Act which passed the House 426-0, and a companion bill which passed the Senate. To address the readiness crisis, it establishes a new, high level board of military officers, the Defense Materiel Readiness Board, to grapple with the growing, dramatic shortfalls confronting the Armed Forces. The committee also made a special effort to authorize the most money possible for readiness accounts. Critically, this bill will bring much needed oversight to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. It follows up on the bipartisan investigation of Iraqi Security Forces by the committee's reinstated Oversight & Investigations Subcommittee by increasing reporting relating to Iraqi Security Forces and requiring real accountability for weapons transferred to that nation. And it institutes, for the first time, regular progress reports to Congress on the war in Afghanistan, where our critical national interests remain deeply challenged by those who attacked us on September 11. The bill also creates a new Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction. Finally, this bill takes significant strides to ensure that the Department of Defense is able to posture itself to address new threats. The bill includes $17.6 billion for mine resistant ambush protected (MRAP) vehicles to protect our troops in Iraq and in future conflicts. It increases funding for shipbuilding by almost a billion dollars. The bill also adds 8 C-17s to help meet the demands for global power projection in today's world. In closing, I ask my colleagues to support this rule and to support the conference report when we consider it later today.

Mr. SKELTON

Mr. SKELTON. Madam Speaker, let me take this moment to recognize the career of Sam Licklider. Sam Licklider has served as the senior vice president of governmental affairs for the Missouri Association of Realtors for 40 years. Mr. Licklider joined the Missouri Association of Realtors in 1968 after graduating from Westminster College in Fulton, MO. As the organization's head of legislative affairs, Mr. Licklider spends his time fighting for realtor issues at the Missouri capitol. He is widely regarded as being one of the Missouri Association of Realtors' biggest assets. Sam Licklider and his wife, Jane, currently reside in Jefferson City. They have two children and four grandchildren. I trust that Members of the House will join me in wishing Sam Licklider and his family the best of luck in the days ahead.

Mr. SKELTON

Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, the people of rural Missouri and those who live throughout the United States are eager for Congress to enact energy policies that help alleviate record high oil prices, reduce America's dependency on foreign oil, promote homegrown energy sources, and preserve the environment for future generations. The comprehensive energy bill we are considering today, the Energy Independence and Security Act, would address the peoples' concerns in these areas. After careful consideration, I have concluded the measure is good for rural Missouri and for the security of our Nation. I will lend my support to it. Our Nation cannot afford to ignore the impact high energy prices are having on individuals, on families, and on the economy at large. Oil and fuel prices have been at record levels for weeks. Rural Missouri families and farmers, who rely heavily on transportation to go about their daily lives, are particularly hard hit by high fuel costs. They have been allocating larger portions of their income to fill their gas tanks and to heat their homes. Meanwhile, America's top five oil companies have been collecting record profits and refusing to invest those profits in new oil refining capabilities. Enactment of the Energy Independence and Security Act would be welcome news to Missouri motorists. For the first time since 1975, this legislation would raise fuel efficiency standards for the cars and trucks sold in our country. Further, it would ensure that automakers continue producing trucks driven by many rural Americans by adjusting the fuel efficiency requirements for these particular vehicles. Improved fuel efficiency is long overdue. Over time, this added efficiency would reduce by half the amount of oil America imports from foreign sources, reduce hazardous vehicle emissions, preserve our environment, and eventually yield fewer trips to the gas station for hard working Americans. I am pleased that the automobile industry and conservationists support this fuel efficiency standard. Important to Missouri farmers is the robust renewable fuels standard included in the Energy Independence and Security Act. In the Show-Me State and throughout America's heartland, ethanol and biodiesel production facilities dot the countryside. They have fostered economic development in areas of the country that have struggled to produce jobs. Many of these facilities are owned by farmers who have committed their financial resources and ingenuity toward advancing America's energy independence, improving farm incomes, and boosting the economic well-being of small towns. The 2005 Energy Bill included a strong renewable fuels standard for ethanol made from corn. Since passage of that legislation, ethanol production has dramatically increased, corn yields have set records, and ethanol's farmer-investors have reaped economic gains. Because of the overwhelming success of ethanol and the demand for corn, the price per bushel of corn has risen. Combined with widespread drought that has impacted much of the Midwest and Great Plains States over the past several years, killing or damaging grazing pastureland, high corn prices have raised concerns about ethanol with some livestock producers. This year's energy bill would build upon the successful renewable fuels standard established in 2005 by allowing for a strong corn ethanol mandate, while also phasing in ethanol made from sources other than corn to help assuage the concerns of some U.S. livestock producers. The bill also would create a minimum use requirement for biodiesel made from soybeans and other sources. While I will support the Energy Independence and Security Act, the bill is not perfect. I am concerned that investor-owned utility firms in Missouri and elsewhere may not be able to sufficiently produce electricity from renewable sources within the time mandated by the legislation. I am hopeful that the Energy and Commerce Committee will sit down with investor-owned utility firms to iron out any glitches that may arise in this particular area. Taken as a whole, the Energy Independence and Security Act would be good for rural Missouri and for our country. I will vote for it and urge my colleagues to do the same.

Mr. SKELTON

Mr. SKELTON. Mr. Speaker, I move that the House do now adjourn.