Rob Simmons

Mr. SIMMONS

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, H. Res. 750, which was introduced by the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. McCotter), recognizes the 130th anniversary of the creation of life-saving stations on the Great Lakes. It commends the personnel of the United States Life-Saving Service for their efforts to save lives and property on the Great Lakes and acknowledges the leadership of Sumner Increase Kimball in protecting maritime safety. The United States Life-Saving Service was established in 1874. The Life-Saving Service operated as an independent agency within the Department of the Treasury before these operations were transferred to the newly established United States Coast Guard in 1915. The efforts by the brave heroes of the Life-Saving Service formed the basis for the Coast Guard's search and rescue functions that continue to this very day. As part of the service, numerous life-saving and lifeboat stations were built on the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts and along the shores of the Great Lakes. Over a period of 40 years, the men of the Life-Saving Service saved the lives of more than 55,000 people, and they saved more than $110 million in property in the Great Lakes region alone. These rescues were often made in the face of dangerous storms and under treacherous conditions. Twenty brave men gave their lives while performing their duties as employees of the Life-Saving Service, and we honor their service and their sacrifice with this resolution here today. I certainly commend my colleague, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. McCotter), for introducing this legislation, and I urge my colleagues to join me in recognizing the anniversary of the creation of life- saving stations on the Great Lakes. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, seeing that there are no more speakers on this side, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H. Res. 750.

Mr. SIMMONS

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to support my colleague from New Jersey, Mr. Menendez's amendment to H.R. 10, the 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act. Every American remembers where they were on September 11, 2001. On that morning the American people began a journey together. No one can predict how long we will be on this journey. Luckily, we were given the beginnings of a guidebook for this journey, provided by the bipartisan men and women of the 9/11 Commission. The American people watched over the last many months as the 9/11 Commission met to examine facts and question witnesses. Together they pieced together the failures and shortcomings that led to the terrible attacks of September 11. The Commission then produced a series of recommendations for the American people that came out in July and literally flew off bookstore shelves around the country. Like my fellow citizens I took the time to read the 9/11 Commission's final report and contemplate the more-than 40 recommendations. I like many of the recommendations made by the Commission. There are others that I do not like. But I respect the fact that this is an important start, and a blueprint that many of the American people have read, and understand. On July 28, 2004, I joined my colleague from Connecticut, Christopher Shays, to announce my participation in a bipartisan 9/11 Commission Caucus whose purpose was to promote their recommendations in a bicameral and bipartisan fashion. Subsequently, we introduced a bill in the House that mirrored the 9/11 Commission recommendations. Senator Susan Collins of Maine and my Senator, Joe Lieberman of Connecticut, also had the wisdom to introduce legislation in the other body that mirrors the recommendations of the 9/11 Commission. The administration has endorsed the Collins-Lieberman legislation; the 9/11 Commission Families have endorsed this legislation and last night the Senate overwhelmingly passed the legislation. Today we have the opportunity to do the same by voting in favor of the Menendez amendment. I will be supporting this amendment to show my constituents and the American people that indeed we are on this journey together, that we will not taint the 9/11 Commission's recommendations, that we will start reforming our intelligence community and that we invite Americans to join us as we build from these recommendations.

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise today to urge my colleagues to support my Open Source Intelligence amendment to H.R. 10, the 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act. And I thank the Committee on Rules, the chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, the chairman of the Committee on the Judiciary, and, of course, the chairman of the Committee on Armed Services for their efforts to help me perfect this amendment, and I also thank them for their support of the amendment. Essentially what this amendment does is it expresses a sense of Congress that the new National Intelligence Director should establish an intelligence center for the production of open source intelligence, and it instructs the National Intelligence Director to consider establishing this new center and to report to Congress by June 30, 2005. Many people ask me what is open source intelligence. And it is really very simple. Open source intelligence, or OSINT, is an intelligence discipline based on information collected from open sources, which could be newspapers, the Internet, books, phonebooks, scientific journals, radio, and television. And once this information is collected from these open sources, it is processed, analyzed, used to produce intelligence, which is then disseminated to intelligence consumers. Open source is not new. The Foreign Broadcast Information Service has been around for many years, and their daily reports contained translated broadcasts, news agency transmissions, newspapers, and other statements from nations around the world. The daily reports represent a unique resource for the study of foreign affairs. But we can do better than just these daily reports. The 9/11 Commission report supported the creation of a new Open Source Agency and staff statement No. 11 from that report said, Open sources have always been the bedrock source of information for intelligence. One of the great advantages of open source intelligence is it is relatively inexpensive, and we can share it with others including our allies, soldiers from foreign governments; and best of all, we can share open source intelligence with the American people. For example, for those interested in Iran's nuclear proliferation activities, I have an aerial photograph in front of me dated 2002 showing the construction of buildings for uranium enrichment, and then 2 years later it shows that those facilities have been buried underground. If the Iranians claim there is nothing sensitive taking place on that site, we look at a larger photograph and here we see the construction, but here when these facilities have been buried underground, we see a new guard fence with guard posts around. The best part of these aerial photographs is they are unclassified, and we can describe what is going on in Iran and share it not only with Members of this Chamber but with our allies and with the American people. Even though the 9/11 Commission report supports creation of an Open Source Agency, my amendment simply asks the National Intelligence Director to report to Congress next June with his or her recommendation. Mr. Chairman, at a time when the performance of the U.S. intelligence community is being questioned and when every scrap of information is needed to put together the puzzle presented by terrorist operations, there could be no better time to incorporate the value of open source intelligence to the overall product than right now. Mr. Chairman. I urge my colleagues to support my open source intelligence amendment to H.R. 10, the 9/11 Recommendations Implementation Act. I thank the Rules Committee for allowing for consideration of this amendment and I thank Intelligence Chairman Pete Hoekstra, Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Sensenbrenner, and Armed Services, Chairman Duncan Hunter for working with me to perfect this amendment. I also thank them for their endorsements of the amendment. This amendment expresses a sense of Congress that the new National Intelligence Director should establish an intelligence center for the production of open source intelligence. It instructs the National Intelligence Director to consider establishing this new center and to report to Congress by June 30, 2005 with a decision on whether or not to create such an OSINT Center. Many people ask me to explain what exactly is open source intelligence or OSINT. It is really very simple. OSINT is an intelligence discipline based on information collected from open sources. These sources include newspapers, the Internet, books, phone books, scientific journals, radio and television broadcasts. Once this information is collected from publicly available sources, it is processed and analyzed to produce intelligence, which is subsequently disseminated to intelligence consumers. The discipline of OSINT is nothing new and our intelligence community has been using it for a long time. For example, the Foreign Broadcast Information Service works with open sources. Their Daily Reports consist of translated broadcasts, news agency transmissions, newspapers, periodicals and government statements from nations around the globe. These media sources are monitored in their original language, translated into English, and issued daily to U.S. Government officials. The Daily Reports represent a unique resource for the study of foreign affairs, business, law, sociology, political science and more, covering all regions of the world. It is important to know that the 9/11 Commission Report recommends creation of a new Open Source Agency. Staff Statement No. 11 of the 9/ 11 Commission Report states the following: Finally, open sources--the systematic collection of foreign media--have always been a bedrock source of information for intelligence. Open sources remain important, including among terrorist groups that use the media and the Internet to communicate leadership guidance. The Foreign Broadcast Information Service performed this mission. During the early 1990s that service had been ``shredded,'' as one official put it to us, by budget cuts. In the mid-1990s, it was my honor to command the 434th Military Intelligence Detachment (MID), a U.S. Army Reserve unit affiliated with Yale University and located in New Haven, Connecticut. With the active participation of CWO-4 Alan D. Tompkins and SGT Eliot A. Jardines, our unit wrote the first handbook for Open Source Intelligence (OSINT) for the U.S. Army. The Military Intelligence Corps accepted it as doctrine. One of the great advantages of Open Source Intelligence is that it is relatively inexpensive. Another advantage is that we can share it with others without fear of compromising sensitive sources and methods. We can share it with our soldiers, share it with our international allies, and most importantly--we can share it with the American people. I have with me overhead photos that illustrate the utility of Open Source Intelligence. They describe Iran's activities to construct and then bury a uranium enrichment facility. You can clearly see that over two years the facility was completed, buried and secured with a fence and guard towers. The best part is that these aerial photos are not classified and can be shared with our allies and the American people when discussing Iran's nuclear proliferation activities. Why is OSINT important today? The ``information explosion'' has dramatically increased both the quality and quantity of the information available in the public domain. Because this information is unclassified, it can be shared quickly and freely, and acted upon. Unfortunately, our country's intelligence service has not adequately coordinated our OSINT efforts. The time has come to revisit the importance of Open Source Intelligence and to consider the creation of an OSINT center. Although the 9/11 Commission Report supports creation of an Open Source Agency, my amendment simply asks the new National Intelligence Director to report to Congress his or her recommendation on this matter. Earlier this year when the House considered the Intelligence Authorization Act my colleagues accepted a similar amendment that directed the Director of Central Intelligence (DCI) to focus on the importance of OSINT and report to Congress in six months on the progress being made in utilizing OSINT. At a time in our history where the performance of the U.S. Intelligence Community is being questioned, and where every scrap of information is needed to piece together the puzzle presented by terrorist operations, there could be no better time to incorporate the value of OSINT to the overall intelligence product available to our policy makers and military forces. I urge you to join me in support of my amendment on Open Source Intelligence. Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Hoekstra), the distinguished chairman of the Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Chairman, I yield 30 seconds to the gentleman from California (Mr. Hunter), the distinguished chairman of the Committee on Armed Services.

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself the balance of my time. Mr. Chairman, at a time of international terrorism, there is no such thing as too much intelligence. Open source intelligence could save lives and inform our policymakers. Support the amendment. Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. SIMMONS

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me time. I also thank my colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez), the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Health of the Committee on Veterans' Affairs, for all of the hard work he has done over the last 2 years working with me in a bipartisan fashion to bring this and many other bills forward that benefit our veterans. Of course, our chairman, the gentleman from New Jersey (Chairman Smith) and ranking member, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Evans), have been stalwart advocates for our veterans, and I appreciate their leadership as well. Mr. Speaker, several years ago the Government Accounting Office revealed that the Veterans Administration was losing millions of dollars because of the upkeep of underutilized facilities, and the VA has been moving to realign their capital assets, their real properties, so that this expenditure of funds is no longer excessive. What this legislation tries to do is give the VA the appropriate tools to better manage their capital assets. This legislation would not only provide them with the funding authority to open 16 new outpatient clinics, it also provides a mechanism for the transfer of VA properties, to turn the proceeds from such transfers into additional revenues to support veterans health care. It allows the VA to retain proceeds from the sale or leasing or transfer of excess property, and then these proceeds go into the new capital asset fund where then the VA could reappropriate them to provide delivery of health care to our veterans. Furthermore, it would allow or require the VA to obtain fair market value for the transfer of any properties except those properties that might be transferred to providers of homeless services for our veterans. Thirdly, the legislation recognizes that some VA properties have tremendous historic value, such as the Fitzsimons Hospital out in Colorado, which has a room that was used for President Dwight Eisenhower as he recovered from his heart attack. We do not want to destroy those properties that have historic value or that have rooms or bays in them that housed famous personalities. So what we want to do, as we move the VA properties into the 21st century, we also want to preserve and protect numerous properties that have historic value, and this legislation allows the VA to adopt these historic properties to new uses. I know my colleague from Colorado is here and that he will be speaking about the Fitzsimons Hospital. So I will pass over that and simply say that this legislation, again, was designed to allow the VA to be more effective in how it manages its capital assets so that as we sell, lease or transfer these properties, the VA can recover those dollars and then reallocate them to provide services for our veterans. Mr. Speaker, I am proud to work with my colleagues across the aisle on this legislation.

Mr. SIMMONS

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me the time, I thank him for his leadership, and I thank the ranking member, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez), for all of his hard work. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I just want to take a few moments to focus on a couple of points that the chairman raised with regard to this legislation. Since 1966, the number of patients treated annually by the VA has risen by 70 percent. During this same period of time of a growing demand for VA health services, the number of nursing program graduates nationwide began to fall. So at a time when the demand for services went up, the supply of nurses has been going down. The latest U.S. Health Resources and Services Administration report projects that the shortage of nurses this year will reach approximately 138,000 nurses. We have received testimony before the Subcommittee on Health that the nurse vacancy rate at VA is currently at 9 percent and rising, in excess of 4,500 positions. In addition, the report found that the average VA nurse was nearly 49 years old, ahead of the national average for nurses, which is 42 years old. Now, while 49 years old may be young compared to my age and the age of some of my colleagues, I think that we have to see that there is a serious trend here when it comes to VA nurses. The VA is falling behind in its effort to staff these critical positions. This legislation before us today would establish a pilot program within the VA to study the use of outside recruitment, advertising and communications techniques. Online technologies that are currently being used by 100 percent of the Fortune 500 companies to attract people into Fortune 500 companies, well, it can attract people into VA nursing. Furthermore, the legislation includes provisions that allow nurses to have more control over their schedules and their private lives so their work schedules are less inflexible and the working conditions that they have are more congenial. Another important provision is that the VA will be allowed to assist State nursing homes, that is, veterans facilities managed by States, to reduce shortages at long-term-care facilities operating under the authority of the VA but managed by the State. For example, in my home State of Connecticut, the Rocky Hill Home for veterans is engaged in a major program with the Veterans Administration to provide long-term care. This will include the construction of a 250-bed long-term-care facility, but it also includes partnering between the VA and the Connecticut Department of Veterans' Affairs so that the cost of that long-term nursing care is distributed between the State and the Federal Government. Mr. Speaker, I want to express my appreciation to our chairman, to our ranking member, the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Evans) and to our staffs on the majority and minority staff, and to my colleague, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Rodriguez), and all the members of the committee and subcommittee for operating in a bipartisan fashion to bring this legislation forward for the benefit of our veterans. Mr. Speaker, I see that there are no further speakers on my side, and I would be prepared to yield back, but I will give my colleague the opportunity to speak. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on H.R. 4231, as amended.

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. (Mr. SIMMONS asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, this bill is responsible legislation that will advance quality health care for veterans, and I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 4231 as amended. Mr. Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. There may not be another opportunity with this session coming to a close to thank my colleague on the floor in the context of doing a bill for our veterans. His leadership in Veterans' Affairs has been extraordinary. The impact of his service on this committee will have a beneficial effect on millions and millions of veterans for many, many years to come, and I thank him for all of his hard work.

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

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

Mr. SIMMONS

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman from West Virginia for yielding me this time, and I rise in support of her amendment. Essentially, what her amendment does is prevent the privatizing of tax collection, and I think this is really very important. My overriding objection to privatizing tax collection is that it has always been treated as an inherently governmental function. And I think that the Federal employees who do this do a great job, and we should be proud of them. Speaking for myself, I am a Federal employee, and I have spent many years of my life as a Federal employee. I think the Federal employees do a great job. I have met in my congressional district with IRS employees who work on these important tasks, and they themselves have expressed to me serious concerns about the proposal that this amendment will correct. I think that, in this era of electronic information sharing, we have to be very careful with how we outsource or privatize some of these tasks. On that basis, I support the gentlewoman's amendment and thank her for it.

Mr. SIMMONS

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and agree to the resolution (H. Res. 771) expressing the thanks of the House of Representatives and the Nation for the contributions to freedom made by American POW/MIAs on National POW/MIA Recognition Day.

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days within which to revise and extend their remarks on the resolution under consideration.

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise today in support of H. Res. 771, a resolution that recognizes the sacrifices made by prisoners of war and missing in action on National POW/MIA Recognition Day. The resolution is very straightforward and my colleague from Georgia (Mr. Collins) and I are seeking to give proper acknowledgment to National POW/MIA Recognition Day. Today, nearly 50,000 former American prisoners of war are living in the United States. These are family members, these are friends and neighbors, men and women who fought for our freedom and often suffered tremendous hardship during their detention. Today, we send a message from this Capitol that their contribution to the great story of America's freedom is not forgotten. Since World War II, more than 88,000 members of the Armed Forces remain unaccounted for. Today we offer our sympathies to the families of these soldiers, sailors, airmen and women and Marines missing in action. Their family members are our family members, they are our friends and our neighbors, and they wait patiently for their loved ones to be recovered and returned home for a proper burial. It is hard for those of us who have not suffered or endured this type of hardship to imagine how these families deal with their grief. Again today, we pause to say that on behalf of the Congress and the American people, thank you. Thank you very much. This legislation also recognizes that National POW/MIA Recognition Day is one of the six days specified by law on which the POW/MIA flag is to be flown over specified Federal facilities and national cemeteries. Flying this flag is a visible reminder of the sacrifices of our POWs and MIAs. As many of my colleagues know, the recovery of MIAs has long been a passion of mine. In April of last year, I left the U.S. for Vietnam in the hopes of finding the remains of American soldiers still missing after nearly 30 years in the Vietnam War. Specifically, my hope was to recover the remains of Captain Arnold Holm of Waterford, Connecticut, whose helicopter was shot down over Vietnam in 1972. I met his widow several years ago and learned that for 30 years she had not had a funeral ceremony or a memorial service because she held out the hope that her husband's remains would be found and that he would be brought back home to Waterford, Connecticut. This trip was the first time that I had been back to Vietnam in almost 30 years, having served there in the U.S. Army in the 1960s and in the CIA in the 1970s. I spent 2 days with American and Vietnamese officers, with the joint POW/MIA Accounting Command in the jungles near Hue, Vietnam. We recovered watches, boots, and other assorted items. But we were unable to recover the crash site or the remains of Captain Holm. This was an emotional mission for me, for my family, for the family of Captain Holm, and for his friends. And this mission continues. We will continue to search for the remains of our missing. Several families in Connecticut have been blessed with the recovery of the remains of their loved ones, and this would include Robert Bush of Hamden; Legrande Cole of Danbury; Crosley Fitton of Hartford; Irwin Lerner of Stratford; Richard Rich of Stamford; John Brooks Sherman of Darien; Larry Thorne of Norwalk; and from my own district, Peter McCarthur Cleary of Colchester, Connecticut, whose remains were identified February of 2002. Every day that the POW/MIA flag flies over the Rotunda of this Capitol it is an important reminder to Members, staff, and visitors of the sacrifice made by American prisoners of war and the missing in action. However, on this important day, that flag also flies over the dome of our Capitol, an important reminder to the world that today we pause to commemorate National POW/MIA Recognition Day. Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the distinguished gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Collins), fellow co-sponsor of this legislation.

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. In closing, I would simply like to echo the comments of the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Collins) in thanking the National League of Families for their work and for their faith in the fact that we will be able to locate the remains of their loved ones, wherever they may be around the world. Specifically talking about Vietnam, I would also like to share with my colleagues that these recovery efforts that are ongoing jointly between officials of the United States of America and the Vietnamese Government are not safe. They are difficult projects to conduct. In April of 2001, a helicopter that was carrying officials from both companies crashed, killing seven Americans and seven Vietnamese. But I think that we can gather hope from the fact that this joint effort between our two countries is going forward. And for whatever wounds remain from that war, they will be bound up and healed by this humanitarian effort to locate the remains and recover the remains of both Americans and Vietnamese missing in action. Again, in conclusion, on behalf of this Congress, I thank all of those men and women who have offered their lives in defense of the freedom and democracy that we enjoy, and in particular, for those families who have loved ones as yet unrecovered, we thank them for their service, their sacrifice, and their suffering.

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

Mr. SIMMONS

Mr. SIMMONS. Mr. Speaker, our Nation's firefighters stand ready to protect lives and property 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Firefighters have no holiday because the types of disasters they face can happen anytime. In Connecticut's Second District, which I am proud to represent, the Board of Selectmen for the Town of Colchester has issued a proclamation recognizing the Colchester Hayward Volunteer Fire Company's 150 years of service. I come to the floor of the House of Representatives to add my voice to thanking all the members, past and present, of this wonderful Fire Company. The Colchester Hayward Volunteer Fire Department was established in February 1854, by Nathaniel Hayward. Mr. Hayward donated 200 feet of hose to the fire department, providing the Borough of Colchester agreed to buy the first fire engine. In October of that year the first hand pumper was purchased. The company grew over the years. In 1913, the first gasoline water pump was purchased. In 1934 the fire station expanded to two engine bays, and by the 1960s the station had four bays. In 1974 the first paid firefighter was hired, and in 1989 the dedication of a new fire station, on Old Hartford Road, took place. In 1993 the fire department began handling emergency medical services, and in 2004 the town of Colchester appointed the first paid fire chief, Walter Cox, who leads more than 125 volunteers. But despite these changes, one thing has remained constant. Today, as in the past, those who wear the uniform of the Colchester Hayward Volunteer Fire Department have only one goal--to protect the people of their community. I once saw a bumper sticker that said: ``On the eighth day God created firefighters.'' That's not much of an exaggeration. How many of us would go into a burning building to save a total stranger? How many of us would run towards danger while others are running the other way? It takes a special person to be a firefighter. For 150 years the dedicated professionals of the Colchester Hayward Volunteer Fire Department have provided quality service. Through their selfless efforts they make their community a better place in which to live, work and raise a family. I urge this Congress to join me in honor of 150 years of the Colchester Hayward Volunteer Fire Department.