Mark Souder

Mr. SOUDER

Mr. SOUDER. You are acting like an American, Congressman.

Mr. SOUDER. If you could put your quote back up, I just want to say that you are just so incredibly not politically correct for this day and age. Because American electricity rates would go up, but we're world citizens now. Surely you are not claiming that rates would go up in Pakistan, China and other places. We use a disproportionate amount of the energy of the world. So we should be willing to sacrifice so that all the world's citizens can benefit more by taking our jobs and having a better standard of living. Then we can be all more equal. You are just not being politically correct tonight.

Mr. SOUDER. Would the gentleman yield for a question?

Mr. SOUDER. Yes, I don't mean to monopolize the time, but when you say these things, to illustrate the manufacturing in my district, Michelin bought a U.S.--bought a BFGoodrich tire plant in my district with 1,600 people in it. They have invested $15 million a year if they can become 5 percent more efficient, so they put $120 million into this huge plant, and people don't even realize what they are putting in. And I was just part of a suit to say stop the dumping, because we can compete with China without the dumping, but not if you add 7 percent health care and then add a cap-and-trade and then add the other OSHA and all the types of regulations that are coming back that we had restricted, we can't compete in tires. I have a lot of the defense industry. I have a BAE plant with 2,500 people working in it. They do a lot for Boeing. One Member just a moment ago referred to Wilbur and Orville Wright and the amazing thing, but, you know, we are going to go back to these kinds of paper airplanes if we are not careful here. Boeing, that's metal. It takes energy to build every part in that plane, and it takes energy to launch the plane. And it's not--let's just say, they don't have windmills on this thing. They don't have solar panels to get a jet up in the air. I have NASA satellites. The ones that feed into The Weather Channel are made by ITT in Fort Wayne, and they actually are looking at being able to track, as my friend from Texas earlier said about, we don't really have the science on that. Well, that's what one of the companies in my district is looking at; can we get satellites up in the air to track the climate change? Because the truth is, we are doing this bill with no data. But put a satellite up. You know what, it has aluminum on it. You know what takes an incredible amount of energy to make, aluminum. The electrical systems in a plane and a satellite are copper. You can't get copper if you can't mine for copper. You can't make--the smelting of copper takes an incredible amount of energy. Aluminum and copper take as much or more energy than steel. How do they think we are going to get airplanes? How do they think we are even going to track the climate change? It is baffling that this bill could have gone through a Congress. I am going to make a flat-out statement. If most of the Members of Congress were businessmen, this would have never passed.

Mr. SOUDER. The Heritage study showed that my congressional district is number one is loss. Next to the me is Joe Donnelly in the South Bend district, who was number two. Congressman Latta, who asked for the split out, just to my east in Ohio, is number three. Mike Pence, who is just to my south in that part of Indiana is number four. Congressman Jordan is number five and Congressman Boehner is number six. Because not only do we have manufacturing, we tend to use coal and nuclear because alternative energy is less of an option in these heavy industrials. Then it kind of jumps up to Michigan. The other thing that's noticeable in that map where the dark red is and the other is that's really where most of the water is in the United States, coming out of the Mississippi, and to manufacture, you need to have water and access to water. You are not going to move--you will see some in the orange States. You can move some steel and manufacturing into those areas, but basically you can't really transfer to those light yellow because that's mostly desert area. And you can't power these big plants with just solar or wind, and they don't have enough water to supplement the traditional that you need in refineries and in steel mills and that type of thing, and they don't really have a plan. That's why we Republicans, when you look at the actual details--if you could even stomach, by the way, the government making all these decisions rather than market, that's bad enough. I mean, that document basically is page after page of the government telling us how we should live, the government telling us how we should make things. But the bottom line, when you look at that map, if it goes out of the red zone, it's basically going to Mexico, to China, to Korea, to South America. Because the areas that are lighter, where you conceivably could shift it, it's just not possible to build these plants there.

Mr. SOUDER. I appreciate the honor of being an honorary Texan here tonight because in Indiana we're still unusual. I mean we still make things. We don't have the mountains like they have out West or beaches. What we have are hardworking Americans who are still competing worldwide in manufacturing. And if you go into any of the types of plants--earlier I was talking about our steel mills in addition to the two SDI mini-mills with recycled steel. Everything they use, they recycle and use recycled materials, as does NuCor. I have a Valbruna steel mill. One of the interesting things that Valbruna has done is they built an additional facility because they're the number one provider of steel to the refinery industry in Texas and Louisiana. So in my district we're making the things still in America. Your options are basically Korea, Brazil, China, or Indiana steel in many of these cases. But these factories take an incredible amount of energy. Some of our factories, we have 85 percent coal, 15 percent nuclear in our basic provision of things. And basically this bill doesn't like things that we can use in Indiana. It doesn't like coal. They really aren't too fond of nuclear. I think that a lot of the question of what to do with waste, I used to think it was driven by Jane Fonda in ``The China Syndrome'' movie, but that's us old people. I think the younger people are thinking of Homer Simpson coming in and kind of blowing up the city of Springfield all the time, and they think of that as nuclear energy. There are 13 or 15 or more plants on the drawing board right now, but it may take 20 years to get there. What do I do if I don't have coal? Well, I could use gas and oil, but, boy, those are kind of bad. We tried to get the BP Refinery done in Indiana to handle Canadian tar sands. There's another one over by Detroit. But they're going to be tied up for 10, 15 years. They were half of EPA discharge. But Rahm Emanuel and others are saying, Oh, no, we can't build that refinery. We don't want any refineries in America. Well, we make 58 percent of the RVs. What are you going to do, put a little fan up on the roof to try to make these RVs go? International designs--800 people to design the big trucks in my district. How are we going to deliver goods to market? The rail is already jammed, the canals are jammed, the rivers are jammed. If we can't use trucks, which take up about 40 percent of the energy on our roads, how are we going to move around? The foundries take this--it was the biggest ice cream plant in the world, an Edy's ice cream plant until they built one additional. But when you go in an ice cream plant, how do you think ice cream is made? You have got to deliver it there, the milk in, then you have got to process it and you have all these electrical machines powering this. You know, they can't do that with a couple of solar panels. I have Kraft Caramels in my district, all sorts of things, not just kind of windshields and axles and stuff. How do you power these kinds of things? I am not against alternative energy at all. I worked hard. In my district, in fact, Guardian windshields has learned that their process of windshields, if you think about it, took solar heat for a long time. And these solar panels in Nevada and other places are cracking. By going with Guardian, they are learning that they can make these panels more efficient, get 20 percent or more energy, and they don't crack. Spain is using them. The new model projects in the U.S. are using them, and they are going to have possibly hundreds of jobs making the windshields for the solar panel industry. Of course, they had near a thousand jobs making windshields for SUVs, pickups and things that are now kind of on the bad list, so we will get green jobs, maybe half as many as we had before in that category. I have Parker-Hannifin in New Haven. We have had an earmark to help them, to try to get the heat down inside of everything from your handheld, your BlackBerry, to wind turbines, and could possibly make the wind turbines 20 percent more efficient. We may have, at some point here, 200 people doing windmill turbines and other things, but that plant had 1,200 supplying traditional energy industries. I have worked with people who are coming, trying to come up with alternative car engines. One of my friends and supporters is putting in a huge wind farm. In Indiana, we have two basic areas that we can put wind farms. We might get to 4 percent, but we can't reach the targets in these bills. It's not that we are not committed to alternative energy, but we don't have as much wind and solar. We have to have traditional forms of energy: oil, gas, nuclear, coal, not just the alternative form, especially if they are going to put limitations on ethanol and biodiesel. So this is a critical time, really, where we are trying to decide in America, are we going to have manufacturing or aren't we going to have manufacturing? Are we basically going to basically have service jobs and then high- tech jobs? Yes, at a coffee house at different universities they sit around and go, Oh, this stuff sounds really great. And the others in their beach houses on the coast go, Oh, this stuff really sounds great. But what's missing in America is we are getting increasingly two classes of people, and the blue collar class of people who made things and had a decent living where they could get a house, maybe a boat where they could go on vacation, they are disappearing. And the knowledge class, often in the liberal upper groups of the Democratic Party, are basically saying goodbye to their working class. And they are saying, You can either basically maybe bring us a drink, grill us a hamburger, or go get a doctorate and teach at a university. What we are losing is the middle group of blue collar Americans who worked with their hands and worked in their fields, and they are basically knocking them out, and those jobs are going to other countries.

Mr. SOUDER

Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, this is a sad day for America, and I don't mean because of the death of Michael Jackson; I mean because if this legislation we just passed were to become law, tens and hundreds of thousands of people would lose their jobs. In my district, we are already getting green jobs. We will have thousands of green jobs, but we are going to lose tens of thousands of other jobs. My congressional district in northeast Indiana is the number one manufacturing district in the United States. One county has 57 percent of the people working in manufacturing. I heard on this floor that we don't have any manufacturing jobs left in America anymore. Oh, yes, we do. In my district, we have 30,000 jobs related to the recreational vehicle area. We have 40,000 jobs related to auto and truck. We make boats. We have tire factories. We have axle factories and windshield factories. We are the manufacturing center, along with Joe Donnelly's district in the South Bend area and Pete Visclosky's in northwest Indiana. We still have an industrial base, an industrial base that has tried to adjust and accommodate and make the changes they need to make. We have the most efficient steel factories in America. We have two steel factories that were roughly a billion dollars each to build, five new core facilities; the only two steel companies in America that haven't lost money because they have cut their costs 75 percent. They have their labor cost down at 4 to 5 percent, yet we are looking at energy costs that could go up 80 to 100 percent because, you know what, you can't power a steel plant in Indiana with solar panels. You cannot do this with windmills. Manufacturing takes an incredible amount of energy. Now let me be honest. I admire the Amish. My great, great grandpa was one of the first Amish settlers in the State of Indiana. My great grandpa left about 1880. It is fine if you want to be Amish with no electricity and windmills and ride around in a horse and buggy, but that should be a choice, not pronounced on you by the Federal Government. For people who want to come to the Notre Dame games in South Bend, I worry that in a couple years you can go over to Elkhart County, one of the largest Amish settlements, and go, Oh, look at that Amish farm. There's no electricity there. They're riding around in a buggy; but it won't be Amish, it will be everybody in the area because that is county that has 57 percent manufacturing, a county that the President went in with the stimulus package and said, This is the highest unemployment area in the United States, and we are going to bring you jobs. And instead, we are bringing death to manufacturing. I just don't understand it. Maybe my district should introduce legislation to make it a national historical industrial park area where people could go and see what steel mills used to look like. They could go and see what axle companies used to look like. What it looked like to make the Silverado and the Sierra pickup before we drove them to China, before we moved the last companies out. And in between, you could see soybean and corn farms, and apparently we made some change here, but it is amazing we even had to make this change, that ethanol soy-diesel, we have the biggest integrated soy- diesel plant in the world. Dreyfus was worried down to the original draft of this bill they were going to be put out because they were cutting down trees to plant soybeans and corn for ethanol, except our trees are already cut down. Oh, you mean they were going to cut down trees in Brazil? Well, not our companies. But because we are internationalists now and we're trying to be one world, if we grow soybeans in Indiana, then we have to offset it with trees in other places, and now maybe we won't have to offset it and maybe we won't wipe out soy-diesel and ethanol. What kind of joke is this? I honestly did not think that this House could pass this bill. These are hardworking, blue collar workers. Many in my area, if not most, union members. Look, they are not necessarily big fans of Mark Souder or Republicans. It is their constituency who they are putting out of work, people who didn't necessarily have a college degree, who worked in steel mills, who worked in auto places, who got up early in the morning and worked a hard day and thought they could make it in America. But no, we are shipping their jobs away from America because now they are dirty, even though now they will go to other countries where it will be dirtier air? What about farmers who get up and they work hard all day, six, seven days a week in the peak season, and now they are going to be told that their energy costs are going to go up. The REMCs in my area, which are huge, when I have gone to their meetings, 1,400 and 1,500, they say it is going to be $60 to $80 minimum a month on each of their people who are working hard ever day and are trying to figure out now, with a 15 percent average unemployment in my district, that they are supposed to take this kind of a heating bill. I do not understand this. If you don't have steel, how do you have a military? Are we going to build our big aircraft carriers out of bamboo? What are we going to do here? Maybe we can have China build the steel for our military. That will work real well. They are our good buddies. Before, when we heard the day of infamy from Franklin Delano Roosevelt, we at least had a manufacturing base to respond. This day of infamy, if this bill becomes law, we won't have a manufacturing base to respond.

Mr. SOUDER

Mr. SOUDER. Madam Speaker, I come tonight a little stunned. Quite frankly, I didn't think the energy bill, the cap-and-trade bill, would actually ever reach a point where it would come before the House and for that matter the Senate. When we are in the unemployment state that we are in right now in America, it seems rather ridiculous to be bringing bills that would put so many hardworking people out of work. The cap-and-trade bill, or as many of us call it, the cap-and-tax bill, are what a manufacturing district like mine would call a ``cap and trade our jobs to China bill.'' We are just reeling right now. Honestly, to talk about my district for a second, I have eight counties. The mean of unemployment in those counties is 15 percent. Two of the counties, Elkhart and LaGrange, are at 19 percent. Let me tell you about my best county. My best county, Allen County, my home, anchored by Fort Wayne with a little under 300,000 people, has an unemployment rate of approaching 11 percent. We have one of the biggest pick-up plants in the world that produces the Silverado and the Sierra. So I have been fighting hard to make sure that they are not knocked out of business. Our largest property tax payer, the GM plant is the second largest, is a mall that is part General Growth Properties. That is in chapter 11. One of our large employers is a financial company that has 1,900 jobs, and they have applied for TARP funds. We are struggling with auto parts. The Fort Wayne Foundry, over 100 years in business, has just closed three plants because they are a major GM and Chrysler supplier and couldn't make it through the shut-downs after 100 years. Now we are being asked to tax them through their energy. Now let me talk a little bit about how we get our energy in Indiana. We are 85 percent coal. We are 15 percent nuclear. The Heritage study showing impact by congressional district says that my congressional district is the number one damaged district. The new figures from the National Association of Manufacturers this week show that my district is the number one manufacturing district. It is unusual. If you came to northeast Indiana, and I represent basically Fort Wayne up to South Bend going along the Michigan line and the Ohio line, if you came to my district, you would drive through an area where you would see lots of water, rivers, 100 lakes in Koskiusko County, 100 lakes in Steuben County. And in between that water is beautiful, green farmland. We aren't dry and parched like much of America. We have a very green area that gives us water, which is essential to most manufacturing. You can't build major manufacturing facilities where there isn't adequate water. And people still farm. We don't have the great big corporate farms. We have many small farms. Because one person from each family, sometimes even multi-families on a small farm, will be working at different auto parts plants, plastic parts plants and RV plants scattered throughout my district, thousands and thousands and thousands. They are at a direct threat. Let me talk a little bit more about our energy. I have been to the alternative energy labs in Colorado, at Sandia Labs in New Mexico, and at the major places where we look at alternative energy. Indiana cannot get wind power. We don't have a way to get to 20 percent or such high figures in the traditional alternative energy. Some of my friends I have known for many years are putting in one of the biggest wind farms. It is the second most windy area in the State of Indiana. It is going to be miles and miles. We will be lucky to get to four percent if we build every windmill you can build in the State of Indiana. In solar, we don't get as much sun as Arizona and Nevada. We are pushing solar energy as hard as we can. One of my good friends has a new solar company working with the Germans that can get better solar power at homes. But let's get this straight. I have two Steel Dynamics plants, the most efficient steel process in the United States, five Nucor plants and Valbruna Steel. SDI, in one of their plants, takes as much energy as the City of Fort Wayne with nearly 250,000 to 300,000 people in it and everything therein. You cannot power a steel plant with solar panels or windmills. If we are going to make things in America, if we aren't going to ship everything in our country to China, we have to have reasonable, workable energy strategies. I have been working on alternative energy since I came to Washington. There is a company in Fort Wayne that has been highlighted in the New York Times and all the other publications on geothermal called ``Water Furnace.'' California alone could save seven power plants by using geothermal. We need to push in every appropriations bill in every different way geothermal. I have an amendment proposed in the armed services bill to have many of our military facilities use geothermal. I am working with Parker-Hannifin and Regal Boloit to improve air conditioning. Regal Boloit has a green energy process that saves 15 percent of energy in air conditioning. Parker-Hannifin, through an earmark and their own funds, has been working and they think they can get 20 percent more power out of wind turbines. Guardian makes windshields. It is converting part of one of their plants and working with Spain and other places to make windshields and to make solar panels that don't crack and are more efficient. We are looking at major breakthroughs. But we cannot destroy the manufacturing base of America.

Mr. SOUDER

Mr. SOUDER. Madam Speaker, pursuant to the House Republican standards on earmarks, I am submitting the following information regarding earmarks I received as part of H.R. 2647, The National Defense Authorization Act of Fiscal Year 2010. Requesting Member: Congressman Mark Souder Bill Number: H.R. 2647 Account: RDA, 0603807A (PE Number), 70 (Line Number) Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Zimmer Inc. Address of Requesting Entity: P.O. Box 708, Warsaw, IN 46581 Description of Request: Zimmer has concepts for a pneumatic ``nail'' gun that would fire resorbable darts in rapid succession for the purpose of temporarily holding together the fragments of complex fractures prior to using standard plates and screws for long- term fixation. This type of rapid fixation would simplify and speed the time of surgery by eliminating the cumbersome need for metallic pins and clamps. A civilian version of this gun would use darts are intended to function for minutes and then resorb over months. A military version could be designed that provided fixation for days allowing for the safe transfer of these patients from near-battlefield medical units to base hospitals for more extensive care. Many of these fractures are difficult to brace, splint or cast. Closed reduction and maintenance may be possible; further reducing the risk of infection. There is currently no other product on the market that addresses these specific unmet needs. Zimmer estimates that resourcing for a project of this magnitude will require in excess of six professional/technical FTE's (full-time equivalent employees) each year for a period of extending through and potentially beyond FY 2011. Although the precise number can't be calculated at this point, a substantial number of production and process workers (at the Warsaw facility) will be required to commercialize this product.

Mr. SOUDER

Mr. SOUDER. Madam Speaker, pursuant to the House Republican standards on earmarks, I am submitting the following information regarding earmarks I received as part of H.R. 2847--Commerce, Justice, Science, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, FY2010: Requesting Member: Congressman Mark Souder Bill Number: H.R. 2847 Account: DOJ, COPS Legal Name of Requesting Entity: Office of Prosecuting Attorney, Elkhart County Address of Requesting Entity: 301 South Main Street Suite 100; Elkhart, IN 46516 Description of Request: Elkhart County is the eye of the storm for the Midwest when it comes to methamphetamine. Federal financial assistance on this project will allow Elkhart County to advance a protocol to effectively address Mexican cartels and local meth lab manufacturers that can be used as a model for Any Town, U.S.A. By reducing and/or eliminating organized criminal drug enterprises, confidence in the wellbeing of the community can be restored. Requesting Member: Congressman Mark Souder Bill Number: H.R. 2847 Account: DOJ, COPS Legal Name of Requesting Entity: City of Fort Wayne Address of Requesting Entity: One Main Street; Fort Wayne, IN 46802 Description of Request: As part of its initiative to identify and apprehend criminal suspects, the City of Fort Wayne will obtain and operate an Automatic Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) for Latent Palm Prints. This new equipment will allow the Fort Wayne Police Department to increase its ability to apprehend criminals and reduce the amount of time officers must spend in investigating crime scenes, testifying in court and filing police reports. Data gathered from around the country has shown that by adding palm print identification capabilities to an AFIS results in immediate positive identification of criminal suspects in 25% of cases. Better, more efficient identification methods will lead to more captures and prosecutions of criminals, keeping taxpayers and their property safer.

Mr. SOUDER

Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time. First, I want to thank my friend and chairman of the subcommittee, Ms. Sanchez, who's been an excellent leader of our subcommittee and we work together closely on many things, not just noncontroversial bills like today. I thank Mr. Teague for his leadership and my long-time friend, Mr. Reyes, also the chairman of the Intelligence Committee, not only for his work in Congress but his work with the Border Patrol. And again and most personally, today I want to thank every agent, every Border Patrol agent in America for helping protect us, as well as Chief David Aguilar for his leadership and further service. It sometimes gets a tad boring, sometimes it gets a little hot. On the Canadian border, sometimes it gets a little cold. It isn't exactly the most exciting job in America at all times, but what each of these agents does is extremely important to the safety of our Nation. It may not be quite politically correct right now to talk about terrorism, but in fact it is a key part of our first line of defense in the border, and the Border Patrol is a key part of that. And we haven't had a terrorist attack on our soil since 9/11, partly because of our men and women in green. It may not be quite politically correct right now to talk about stopping illegal immigration; but quite frankly, the safety of our Nation, the integrity of American citizenship requires legal, orderly entry. This isn't to say how many there should be, what type of immigration law we should have, but requires an orderly, legal process. So do many American jobs require this. And it may not be quite politically correct right now to talk about stopping illegal drugs, but in doing so, the agents of the Border Patrol have made our streets safer, they have helped prevent child and spousal abuse, they have lowered emergency rooms admissions, they have helped people make child support payments by helping them hold their jobs because of illegal narcotics and other things causing them to lose their jobs or by intercepting them or driving the prices up because of what they intercept. We're never going to stop all drug abuse. And every Border Patrol agent knows he can't. But what he knows is he can intercept large numbers that would have gone to the streets and the homes of America and would have resulted in huge problems in crime and family safety in America. So maybe we don't want to call it the war on drugs anymore. Instead we call it a disease, and for those who get addicted, it is a disease. But in fact unlike doctors and nurses who fight cancer, or researchers who fight cancer or people who fight lupus or diabetes, the Border Patrol agents are getting shot at and they die. So whether we want to call it a war or whatever we want to call it, the individuals who use these illegal narcotics do not wake up one morning and suddenly discover that a heroin needle got put in their arm or that somehow they were snorting crack in their sleep or snorting cocaine in their sleep. In fact, it is somewhat different. And I want to make sure that our men and women of the Border Patrol understand that there is bipartisan support to making sure that we keep our border secure; that we continue to block illegal narcotics; that we continue to block terrorists; and you are our first line of defense on our huge borders, and we cannot thank you enough for risking your lives for the rest of us. I yield back.

Mr. SOUDER. I continue to reserve.

Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in support of H. Resolution 498, celebrating the anniversary of the Border Patrol and honoring their service. The Border Patrol was established in the Immigration Act of 1924, and celebrated its 85th anniversary just recently on May 28, 2009. The Border Patrol is one of the most public faces of the Department of Homeland Security. For those who aren't familiar with the differences, the Border Patrol covers the areas between the ports of entry as opposed to the ports of entry. The 18,000 men and women in green work every day along the borders and coastlines of the United States, often in some of the most rugged and challenging terrain. I have this outsized map here that the Marfa sector of the Border Patrol had given me from Texas. And this is just one small section of the border, but I wanted to use it to illustrate a few points. Marfa, Texas, is one of the more, let's just say, rural parts of America, which is why it was featured in ``No Country for Old Men,'' ``There Will Be Blood,'' because it was such a kind of an undeveloped area. The area at the bottom on the point is the big bend of Texas that you see. That's Big Bend National Park. Those mountains in that area, the Chisnos, are about 7,000 feet. A lot of people think our border is just flat and that it would be very easy to see all the problems coming through, but, in fact, it's very mountainous. The far northwest edge of this map, in the western side of the Marfa sector, is Presidio. Presidio is a point of entry. That point of entry, for example, it's called Presidio because it was a fort, and that's where General Pershing, for example, chased Pancho Villa across. There's no other legal point of entry for hundreds of miles as you go across that border through Big Bend and up until the far side, which is near Lake Amistad and Del Rio sector. These areas are very vulnerable to penetration by any number of things. And a lot of times the Border Patrol, as well as illustrating that the National Park Service has a huge chunk there, huge chunk over in other parks, that this border is not simple, and that when people say, Can't you just put a couple of thousand agents there and control the border, well, no, it is an incredible challenge. During my time in Congress, I have had the opportunity to visit almost every Border Patrol sector on the north and south borders. There's 2,000 miles on the south, 4,000 miles on the north. The challenges are diverse, and the criminal element seeking to exploit our open borders are inventive and have significant resources. Drug smugglers are using helicopters, ultralight aircraft, fast boats, and something as simple as coyotes, forcing illegal aliens to carry 50- pound loads of drugs on their back to bring in contraband. The challenge is endless and the mission is critical. In the 6-plus years that the Border Patrol has been in the Department of Homeland Security, their agency has doubled in size. Congress has provided authorization funding for hundreds of miles of fencing and vehicle barriers, which combined, total over 600 miles. Efforts to provide additional technological resources to the Border Patrol through the SBInet program, that should, when complete, provide an additional capability to detect and respond to illegal entry. A sign that the efforts to gain operational control of the border are working is the growing drug cartel violence in Mexico. Nearly 8,000 people have been killed in drug-related violence in Mexico. It's a tragic situation, and it is absolutely critical that we continue to support and strengthen the Government of Mexico, headed by President Calderon. At the same time, we must further strengthen our own border security efforts, and cannot be dependent on another nation doing that. The Border Patrol's years of honorable service have not been without loss. To date, 104 agents have lost their lives in duty to their country. Additionally, hundreds of assaults, from rockings to Molotov cocktails to threats on their lives occur every year to our Border Patrol agents. As we celebrate the 85th anniversary of the Border Patrol, it is important to remember and honor the agents who have paid the ultimate sacrifice in defense of our country. Luis Aguilar is the most recent who was run over by a drug smuggler trying to flee. As the guards of our borders, the Border Patrol is an important layer of security and often the last line of defense in preventing dangerous people and goods from entering the United States and infiltrating the U.S. communities. The Border Patrol cannot let down their guard as criminal organizations are continually looking for vulnerabilities in our security to bring in contraband. The consequences of a drug load that slips through the layered defense are significant. According to the Department of Justice, in 2007 almost 32 percent of high school seniors used marijuana in the past year and 5 percent had used cocaine. The vast majority of these drugs are smuggled across our borders. The reality of post-September 11, 2001, is that terrorist organizations may also seek to exploit openings along our borders to smuggle operatives or potential weapons. In the week since their anniversary, May 28, the Border Patrol has apprehended six alien gang members and four convicted sex offenders, seized three guns, six trailers carrying contraband, including one with 40 illegal aliens; seized 16,609 pounds of marijuana, five vehicles and an ultralight aircraft. And my favorite is about 6 a.m. last Sunday, agents spotted an individual on a surf board approximately 200 yards offshore paddling north of the international border in Imperial Beach. The surfer was holding a blue duffel bag. He released it as agents approached. Soon after, the blue duffel floated ashore and was inspected by Border Patrol agents and had five packages of marijuana with an estimated street value at $75,000. They're creative, if nothing else, and our Border Patrol has to be creative and persistent in response. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this resolution and to honor the Border Patrol, express support for their important mission and pledge support to enhance their capabilities to gain operational control over our border. [From www.cbp.gov, Mar. 23, 2009] 85 Years of Protected By Thursday, May 28, 2009, will mark the 85th anniversary of the United States Border Patrol. Founded in 1924, the U.S. Border Patrol was established in El Paso, Texas, and Detroit, Michigan. The Purpose: To combat the illegal entry of aliens, contraband, and the flow of illicit liquor from Mexico and Canada into the United States. The U.S. Border Patrol is steeped in a long and rich history that is passed down to each new recruit as they begin their careers at the academy. The newly organized El Paso Border Patrol Station was assigned 25 Patrol Inspectors, many of whom were recruited from the ranks of the Texas Rangers. Today, The Border Patrol boasts over 18,000 agents, in 20 sectors, and 164 stations around the nation. Under the authority of the Immigration Act, approved by Congress on May 28, 1924, the Border Patrol was created as a uniformed law enforcement branch of the Immigration Bureau. This prompted the establishment of the El Paso Border Patrol Sector on July 1, 1924. It was the height of Prohibition in the United States, and organized crime was a growing concern, as the mafia controlled a majority of the alcohol being smuggled into the United States. As a result, liquor smuggling from Mexico and Canada became a well organized, thriving industry. The opportunity to earn substantial sums of money became a temptation for many illegal aliens that were willing to enter the United States carrying a few crates of contraband. It wasn't long before gun battles began to erupt between Border Patrolmen, and smugglers attempting to avoid arrest. In February 1927, El Paso Sector experienced one of the bloodiest months for the agency. As old newspapers report, during the entire month, there had not been a 24-hour period of time without a gunfight between smugglers and Patrol Inspectors. These gunfights added to the renown of the Border Patrol, as patrolmen gained a reputation for winning most of these shootouts. Almost immediately after the establishment of the El Paso Station, a need was seen to have officers at outlying locations. Other stations soon opened within the sector. The Border Patrol began to grow, as the situation along the border was steadily deteriorating. As the prohibition era reached the peak of its infamy; lawlessness and violence became more common along the water borders of the Detroit Sector. Several Detroit Sector Patrol Inspectors were killed in the line of duty during this period, as smugglers attempting to bring contraband across the border resorted to violence to protect their cargo from the Border Patrol Inspectors. Eighty-five years later, the Border Patrol has evolved into the finest law enforcement organization in the world. On a daily basis, the Border Patrol is confronted with a large number of threats that would never have been conceived of at the time of the agency's inception. Criminal organizations have evolved as well, adopting a wide variety of weapons and technology to aid them in their efforts to enter the United States while smuggling human cargo and other contraband. Since 9-11, the agency has had to adapt yet again, to our nations newest threat; terrorism. The U.S. Border Patrol has proven over its long history that its men and women are up to the task ahead, and stand ready at our nation's borders. The U.S. Border Patrol will be hosting several events for the 85th Anniversary, including a Headquarters celebration honoring all of the men and women, past and present, who have made the Border Patrol what it is today. I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SOUDER

Mr. SOUDER. I thank my friend and colleague from Wisconsin for his leadership on Transportation and for the time to speak on this bill. As a member of the Boating Caucus, since we first formed this, I am really pleased to be supportive of this resolution. In northeast Indiana, basically, I represent a lot of water with plants and farms in between. In Kosciusko County, we have 100 lakes. In Steuben County, we have 100 lakes. Along this ridge, one water system heads towards Lake Erie; one water system heads towards Lake Michigan, and the other goes down into the Mississippi Valley. Because of geological potholes basically connected together, sometimes through small dams and sometimes in natural larger lakes, we have the bulk of the lakes in Indiana. It is when the glaciers pulled back. So in this zone, I would guess we may have 40 to 60 percent of the natural lakes in the State of Indiana. Some have been, historically in United States' history, big attractions, not necessarily as big a tourist attraction as in Florida or as in Wisconsin or, for that matter, as in Washington State, but Winona Lake was a big Chautauqua area. In Kosciusko County, we have a number of State parks on these lakes, and so we're proud to bring in lots of regional tourism and people who enjoy them. They're sometimes lined up to get to the open space on our lakes in Indiana. Yet, as the number one manufacturing district in the United States--I can't remember the latest figures--I believe we're fifth in the manufacturing of boats. Many of those boats go down to Florida and to the coasts. The inboard-outboard engine and the jet engine were both invented in my district, working with Volvo in Sweden. Many of the larger boat companies are based there--everything from float boats to fishing boats to high-powered speedboats. It is a critical part of our district. It has been a pleasure to work with the boating industry as we work on how to get retail floor plan financing for boats. We hear a lot right now about GM and Chrysler--the auto companies. I represent Elkhart County, along with Congressman Joe Donnelly. We've been working to make sure of the RV industry, 58 percent of which is there; but if you'll notice and look carefully at the retail floor plan financing and at SBA and at what they've done through TALF and other things, you'll see it says cars, trucks, RVs, motorcycles, and boats, because the same challenge that we're facing in the auto industry is true for the boating industry, which is how do we make sure there are adequate boats being purchased from manufacturers; how do we make sure there is the financing to keep them afloat, and then how do we make sure of the dealers. If they can only get one-fourth of their normal inventory there, here in this peak season for selling boats, it isn't going to work. So this is a very unusual time and an important time for the boating industry. Not only are we entering the summer season in the Great Lakes region and in other areas of the country where boating and recreation are at a peak, but it's also a time of survival. It is probably the biggest challenge to the boat manufacturers since the luxury tax nearly sunk them years ago. So I stand, honored to speak on behalf of this resolution because it's very important that we call to the attention of the American people not only the great pleasures of recreational boating but also the importance of having our boating industry survive.

Mr. SOUDER

Mr. SOUDER. That generosity and kindness to families is important, but we also have to balance is this going to be mandated on the private sector, is this really workable. Have we thought through the particulars in the Federal sector? Do we have the money to do this? Lastly, is this the time, while millions of people are laid off, where others don't know how they're even going to pay their house payments, how they're going to pay their health care, to say, but we in the Federal Government are going to be generous with our employees and give them paid parental leave and family medical leave with their tax money?

Mr. SOUDER. I thank my friend and our ranking minority member, Mr. Issa, for yielding the time and for his leadership here. In an earlier life of mine, when I was with the Select Children Family Committee back in the eighties, my then boss--I was a Republican staff director--my then boss, Dan Coats, was one of the Republicans who supported the Family Medical Leave Bill, which I didn't agree with. But I remember when he told me I could sit in all the meetings and we worked with how that law was going to be drafted. People said, Oh, it'll never be paid. This is just to cover people for unpaid. You're just a paranoid conservative because you keep talking about this becoming paid. We watched this move into the government arena, and all of us understand the tensions here. My daughter just had our second grandchild. She's a schoolteacher. The struggle was how was she going to deal with the time she was going to take off. Was it going to be paid? Was it during a school year? What do you do when you have-- Grant's 2 and Reagan, which won't shock anybody that my daughter picked the name Reagan. She has two little kids. How do you do this? What's fair? My oldest son, Nathan, and his wife both work in the government. They would love to have paid medical leave. But there's some problems here. Quite frankly, one of the most controversial problems is what to do with the husband and should he be able to get time off when a baby is born. Forget all the medical questions. What do we do with air traffic controllers? What do we do with DEA agents who may be working in the final bust on a drug case? What about Homeland Security, where they've been working 2 years on the case, the wife has a baby. Can they take sudden leave as this case is going to trial? There are very complicated fundamental questions in the challenge of how this would practically work. The second challenge is, in case people haven't heard, we've been printing a lot of money or obligating a lot of future debt, and the question is: Is this the time that the Federal Government should be doing something that is, quite frankly, generous, would help many families, but do we really have the money to do this at this time? I represent the number one manufacturing district in the United States, both in jobs and percent of jobs, at least if you counted before the recession started. I imagine I still may be there. My best county, where Fort Wayne is, the biggest city of around 260,000, has a 9.5 percent unemployment rate. Whitley County has 11.6; Kosciusko, 12.2; DeKalb, 13.4; Noble County, 16.6, Steuben County, 15.1; LaGrange County, 17.7; Elkhart County, 17.8, where the President went in for the first stimulus package. Now I'm supposed to go back to my district and say that government employees are going to get paid parental leave when they're looking at how they get unemployment and how they ever get a job.

Mr. SOUDER

Mr. SOUDER. I thank my colleague from Texas. First, I get tired of hearing my own language read back to me. The only language that's relevant here was the part that gutted my amendment which says, ``after a final disposition has issued,'' which eliminates, one, what are they doing until there is a final disposition? If they've been released into America, they are on the planes with us, and we're hoping that the final disposition might occur in--I don't know--2 years, 6 years, 8 years, if they're released. The amendment only covers those who are released. That's if they're on the list. They automatically go on the list. But the big concern is not if they're imprisoned, unless they escape, but whether they're released and that the final disposition, if it is that either we didn't challenge it--in other words, we just released them because we didn't want to have them in trial or that they were found not guilty. To quote Mr. Pascrell, my good friend--and we are good friends--he doesn't want, nor does Mr. DeFazio want, these potential and actual terrorists--I mean, understand in Gitmo, the people that are there, they are the ones we haven't released. Maybe they were innocently carrying an IED or a Kalashnikov, but these were picked up in Afghanistan on the battlefield. These are military detainees. These aren't kind of casual people here that we're talking about. They have been picked up on the battlefield. The only question is, how are we going to try them? How are we going to process them? By the way, the only thing we can get out of the administration as far as the question of being in prison, many are likely already on the No Fly List. The key words here are ``many are likely on the No Fly List.'' They should all be on the No Fly List. Whether they're detained or imprisoned or not, they should be on the No Fly List. We also heard a reference to the Aspen Conference yesterday. Secretary Napolitano said that DHS's role would be--apparently this is a summary--to address the security aspects of the immigration issue regarding the detainees. Now I was in the El Paso Detention Center. There I saw Arellano Felix, one of the major drug people, about to be released in Ciudad Juarez. We hope they picked him up. But this has been the process. We also had a Chinese illegal who was about to be released. He was in the high-risk detention center with Arellano Felix because he had been violent, beating up guards, particularly beating up other prisoners. I said, What's going to happen? They said, Well, China won't take him back. We have to release him into the United States. So is anybody going to be warned? Are we going to track him? No, we can't. We can only hold detainees for so long; and then if we want to proceed with another court case, they're released until then. What happens to him? Well, he may wind up in a prison if he beats up somebody or does something. We have an obligation, as Congress, to make sure that none of these detainees are on an airplane with us. Mr. Chair, during the Committee on Homeland Security consideration of H.R. 2200, Mr. Pascrell spoke against my amendment to require all detainees at Guantanamo Bay, GTMO, to be placed on the Transportation Security Administration, TSA, No Fly List. Mr. Pascrell argued that it was presumptive and that the President should have the opportunity to make a final disposition on each case rather than automatically require that all GTMO detainees be prevented from flying on U.S. commercial aircraft. Specifically, Mr. Pascrell stated, ``We know that many--and it could be all--are bad actors of those 270. But we don't know that yet, do we? We don't know that. And the point of the matter is, the President has a right to exercise his authority. I'm saying, let the President act, and then we can always respond.'' I originally intended to include this quote in my oral statement to demonstrate the lack of clarity and understanding regarding what will happen with the GTMO detainees given the President's decision to close the GTMO facility. I agree with Mr. Pascrell that no one knows yet what will happen. Where I strongly disagree is that Congress should not wait to see what the President decides, which could open up a huge security loophole. Congress must take proactive measures to ensure the safety and security of the American traveling public and my amendment would have ensured that they were not going to be sitting next to a suspected terrorist from GTMO on their next flight.

Mr. SOUDER

Mr. SOUDER. Reclaiming my time, we do not know anything. The only way we know it is to put it into law. We are speculating and are hopeful. Logic would suggest that my amendment is not needed. But in watching what has happened in America today, guess what? The American people look at Congress; they look at the executive branch, and they don't often see common sense at times. Furthermore, particularly as we head into an era where courts are going to go, perhaps, more on feelings rather than on law, this is a risky time period. We need to make it clear-cut--absolutely--if you're in Guantanamo. Now, we've already released a bunch, and a whole bunch of them are coming back and are hitting us. At the very least, if we're not going to keep them in prison, if we're not going to keep them in Guantanamo, at the very least, this Congress needs to guarantee you will absolutely, certainly, 100 percent--not hopefully, not maybe, not probably--100 percent not get on an airplane out of Reagan Airport, sitting next to us, with the ability to blow up this Capitol building and the White House.

Mr. SOUDER. I would yield to the gentlewoman.

Mr. SOUDER. We can't predict what any President or any Attorney General is going to do at any given moment. Even if this goes 8 to 10 years and even if the current President serves two terms, we can't predict it. The fact is that my amendment predicted it. It says, if you are released in the United States, you are automatically on a No Fly List. There was at least enough risk. Poor Congressman John Lewis keeps getting on these lists, and we keep trying to get him off. You can see what a mess sometimes our lists are. It ought to be, if you're in Guantanamo--this is simple. We have their names. We have their fingerprints. We know who they are. We know that they are potential risks. Why would you resist? Just put them on a No Fly List. Why take the gamble here?

Mr. SOUDER. Reclaiming my time, I agree with the gentlewoman. If there is any logic in the world, not a single person here is not going to be on the No Fly List, but we have no assurances. We can't predict what the courts are going to do. We can't predict that.

Mr. SOUDER. I will yield to the gentlewoman from Texas.

Mr. SOUDER. Do you think you're really going to be able to hold them if they've been released? The courts may very well rule we can't even hold them in the United States. This amendment and anybody who goes to the legislative intent will hear the debate. The debate was not about whether or not they were all going to be placed on the No Fly List. The debate was about whether I was prejudging the people who were in Gitmo. Legislative intent will show that this amendment was meant to keep some people from being added to the No Fly List. Any legislative intent will show that, in committee, the intent here was to say: Souder was trying to prejudge the people in Gitmo in that they shouldn't be on a No Fly List and that some of those people should be on a No Fly List. It's indisputable. It's in the Record. So, unless we change the bill, this is a gutting amendment that does not put people on the No Fly List. It is current law which says that the President has the opportunity to put them on a No Fly List.

Mr. SOUDER. Mr. Speaker, we are dealing with so many important issues in this bill, but there are none as important as the issue of whether the actual people getting on board with you are terrorists, which is the fundamental thing we should be concerned about. My amendment said: the Assistant Secretary, in coordination with the Terrorist Screening Center, shall include on the No Fly List any individual who was a detainee housed at the Naval Station Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, on or after January 1, 2009. For purposes of this clause, the term ``detainee'' means an individual in the custody or under the physical control of the United States as a result of armed conflict. That is all in the bill. So what happened in committee? I sat on committee. It was not unanimous. I abstained. I supported the bill, but I could not support a bill with this kind of terrorist fly-through in it. The words that were added were ``after a final disposition has been issued by the President.'' These people are all lawyered up. They are fighting every process to hold them. Many of them, probably, will win, partly because we don't want to go into open court, having to release the information of how we got the information of why they're there, because--guess what? People are getting beheaded. They're exposing our entire lines of tracking information, so some will get out on that basis. Some will get out on the basis that their countries won't take them back. It also says here: ``the final disposition.'' Well, if they're released in the United States, lawyered up and on trial, I don't want people here who are involved in blowing us up and who have been fighting and killing our soldiers. These people who are still there are the ones we haven't already released. I earlier gave examples of people who were released, those who have gone back in, meaning, already, 20 or 30 percent of them have been re-involved. Now, a final disposition can take anywhere from 2 years to a decade to forever. Then there is a final disposition by the President. Well, what if they're just plain released?

Mr. SOUDER. How can we be assured that Gitmo detainees will be treated differently? The simplest way to do this is to say you will automatically be placed on a No Fly List. No debate. You're automatically on there if you are a detainee. The detainees held at Gitmo are not low-risk, innocent people. They are they worst of the worst. Most of the Gitmo detainees are violent radicals, hardened on the battlefield and willing to die or kill for their cause. According to DOD, 74 of the 530 transferred from Gitmo are confirmed or suspected to have returned to the battlefield since we have released them. Some have carried out attacks. This includes Abdallah Saleh al- Ajimi. Ajimi was arrested along the Pakistan-Afghan border in December 2001, fighting alongside al Qaeda. He was transferred from Gitmo to Kuwait in November 2005. In 2008, he joined several others in a suicide bombing in Iraq, killing more than a dozen people. This is somebody who was released from Gitmo, one of the early releasees. The ones we have now, we would deem not safe enough to release. This is somebody who we released. According to the Department of Defense, ``He was apparently living a productive life in Kuwait. It was unknown what motivated him to conduct a suicide attack.'' In this second poster, this is Said Ali al-Shihri. Shihri was captured in Pakistan in December 2001. He was transferred from Gitmo to Saudi Arabia in November 2007. He fled to Yemen, declaring himself the deputy director of al Qaeda in Yemen, and is a prime suspect in the December 2008 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Yemen. This is one we released. This is not one of the 530 who we're still holding because they were too dangerous to release. The security concerns and lack of a clear plan from this administration demonstrate an absolutely clear need for proactive restrictions on detainee freedom to travel within the U.S. should they be transferred here. Congress must play an active role in ensuring that any detainees released in U.S. communities do not pose a threat. A Gallup Poll released this week found that by a ratio of 3:1, respondents oppose moving detainees to the U.S. prisons. I don't think we need a poll to find out whether they want them next to them on an airplane. In Indiana, we have an expression: You can count them on one hand and have enough fingers left to bowl. Other than people in Congress, I can't imagine anybody who wants these people who are released on planes next to them. They make a mockery of ``Fly the Friendly Skies.'' One slogan is ``Fly with Friends.'' Another slogan is ``Lower Fares, Fewer Restrictions.'' I mean, think of the airline slogans with this. My favorite is Delta says, ``Delta Gets You There.'' They're going to need to add, ``Maybe.'' If we don't have this protection, we are vulnerable. This is a matter of national security. As important as this bill is, as important as these amendments are, our number one responsibility is guaranteed safety. I do not understand. I simply do not understand why my friends on the majority side don't even want to have a vote to say, not keep them in prison, not keep them in Guantanamo. This is about a vote should they automatically be placed on the No Fly List.