David Scott

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, Mr. Westmoreland just very cleverly and deceitfully tried to intone and misuse the words and the actions of two of his colleagues from Georgia, John Lewis and myself. It is very important to say that while Georgia has made great progress, I am living example of it, being elected from a district in Georgia that was only 37.6 percent African American. No question about it. But when you tell the truth, Mr. Westmoreland, tell the truth right. Here is the truth of Georgia: Since 1982, Georgia trails only Texas and Alabama in the number of successful section 5 cases, 17, brought against Georgia for failing to submit voting changes for approval to the Department of Justice. Since 1982, not since 1965, since 1982, Georgia has had 83 section 5 objections to discriminatory voting practices, the fourth highest total of all jurisdictions. Since 1982, Georgia has withdrawn the submission of 38 discriminatory voting practices to the Department of Justice after it became apparent that the Department was going to object. Since 1982, the Justice Department has deployed Federal observers to 55 times in Georgia. If there is any State that needs a continuation of the Voting Rights Act, it is Georgia. Announcement by the Chairman

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I appreciate you yielding me this time. Let me just pick up from the last point: Why shouldn't it be applied to the whole Nation? The opposition knows full well: if that were the case, it would immediately be ruled unconstitutional. In every case, the Supreme Court was very clear that whatever the remedy is, it must fix the size of the problem where there has been demonstrated discrimination. That is the whole purpose of it. Mr. Chairman, let me quickly with my time, I want to get to this amendment because it is very important that we show why this amendment is designed to do two things: one, to make this bill unconstitutional; and, two, to kill the Voting Rights Act. The Norwood amendment would do one important thing: it would take the list of jurisdictions currently covered under section 5 and throw it in the garbage can. It would completely disavow every known jurisdiction that is now covered under the Voting Rights Act. That alone is enough for us to have a reason to defeat this amendment. We know that jurisdictions on the list today are still discriminating because we heard testimony, 12,000 pages of testimony. I was there in the committee each and every day. And much of that testimony, Mr. Chairman, came directly from the State of Georgia. As I said earlier, there is no State that needs the Voting Rights Act's protection as does Georgia. When my colleagues from Georgia say they are being punished, who is being punished? I will tell you who is being punished. It is those African American citizens down there who year after year, as we have testified, have said that they are being punished and discriminated against because of the violations of the act. As we sit here and debate this bill today, the Voter ID bill from Georgia gives ample evidence that Georgia is still discriminating. The power of the Voting Rights Act is the power of section 5, and the power of section 5 is to make sure these procedures are precleared. It is designed to prevent discrimination. We dare not take that protection off the books, and that is what the Norwood amendment will do and why we must vote it down.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. If the gentleman would yield.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, this Voting Rights Act is the most important piece of legislation that has been passed in this modern time in our Congress. As I stand here, I am reminded of the words that we used so much as we would go through the South, going up against the Bull Connors, going up against the night riders, going up against the Ku Klux Klan with the courage that was taken and that is still needed today because, unfortunately, discrimination still exists throughout this Nation in various places. And for those who want to say, why punish the South or why punish the State, why is it that you would think of the Voting Rights Act as a punishment? The Voting Rights Act is not a punishment. It is a liberator of those who have been punished, where all they have had was to sing that song: ``Sometimes I feel discouraged, feel my work's in vain; but then the Holy Spirit revives my soul again. There is a balm in Gilead to heal the sin-sick soul. There is a balm in Gilead that makes the wounded whole.'' This balm in Gilead for us today is the Voting Rights Act to heal the wounds of racism that have been inflicted on this country and that we still, unfortunately, suffer from. Let us vote to pass this Voting Rights Act this day and this week and send a resounding message that America is for everybody, black as well as white, rich as well as poor, all of us.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, this is a very shameful amendment, and I will tell you why it is shameful. Here we are on the eve of the 4th of July at the very foundation of this country when those noble words were spoken by Thomas Jefferson, ``We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among those, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,'' and the most important guarantee of that pursuit of happiness is the right to vote. Not long ago, many of my colleagues on that side of the aisle stuck their finger in purple ink and proudly went around and promoted it because the Iraqis had the freedom to go and vote. There was a private first class named Private First Class Rincon from my district in Conyers, Georgia, who gave his life and died for that right, and he was not even a United States citizen. This House had to approve his citizenship posthumously. Now we want to pass an amendment that would give just a little bit of help to his wife, to his mother, to his grandmother, who have difficulty with the English language. This is a terrible moment at a terrible time, when we should be speaking to the greatness of this country, to the right to vote, to cherish it. Here we are on the eve of the 4th of July being what was referred to 40 years ago in the bestseller, being the Ugly American. Let us prove that we are the good American and vote down this ``Ugly American'' amendment.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise before you today deeply honored and humbled to recognize the contributions of one of the 140 remaining Tuskegee Airmen, Mr. Rudolph Berthoud. To understand the achievements and sacrifice of Mr. Berthoud, I feel it is incumbent upon me to discuss the accomplishments of the elite group of fighters to which Mr. Rudolph Berthoud belonged. In thinking of the Tuskegee Airmen I am reminded of the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., who once said that if a man is called to be a street sweeper, he should sweep streets so well that all the hosts of heaven and earth will pause to say, ``Here lived a great street sweeper who did his job well.'' The Tuskegee Airmen were called to a task far greater, both dangerous and unprecedented. As the first black combat pilots to serve in the air force they served just as Dr. King's metaphorical street sweeper. The Tuskegee Airmen flew and defended their country so well that their allies, as well as their opposition, knew them for their skill. One of the fighter squadrons that made up the all black 332nd fighter group was the only fighter group in World War II that never lost a fighter. The courage and commitment of the Tuskegee Airmen led to President Truman's decree to desegregate the U.S. Armed Forces less than a decade after the end of World War II. As a Tuskegee Airman, Mr. Berthoud was an American hero in the truest sense. He fought to defeat the destructive and xenophobic powers of his day that sought to extinguish the flames of freedom and liberty. Mr. Berthoud joined this prestigious group in 1942 at the tender age of 18. He received an assignment to the 477th Medium Bomber Unit which was the first black bomber unit in the United States Air Force. After receiving an official discharge, Mr. Berthoud bravely remained in service for a total of 3 years, rising to the rank of Second Lieutenant. Upon leaving the Armed Forces, Mr. Berthoud continued with public service, returning to New York City, where he was born in 1924, to join the New York City Police Department. Tuskegee University recently recognized Mr. Berthoud for his service as a Tuskegee Airman. On May 14, 2006, Mr. Berthoud and 11 other Tuskegee Airmen received honorary doctorates in honor of the legacy of their service and numerous achievements. Today, Mr. Berthoud is a proud member of the national and Atlanta chapters of the Tuskegee Airmen, Inc. Mr. Berthoud has remained a committed member of Fountain of Faith Missionary Baptist Church in Riverdale, Georgia, for more than 10 years and served on many auxiliaries: the Feeding Ministry, the R.B. Newman Male Chorus, Men of Faith, and an officer for the Trustee Board. By honoring a man who so nobly served our nation abroad, in the face of discrimination at home and doubt in his equal ability, we are turning a page in history books yet written. Mr. Berthoud remains a modest and humble man and is truly deserving of this honor. I join Fountain of Faith Missionary Baptist Church in saluting a national hero who calls the 13th Congressional District of Georgia home.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. This was a remarkable experience I had with the soldier in Iraq, and we had to make that choice of staying that night and putting our own selves in greater danger because, you know, going over there, you cannot fly up at night. You have to go by the roads, but we made that choice, and I am so glad because it gave me the experience of a lifetime. As we were in Camp Victory in Baghdad and we were gathered there, and this soldier came up and was just hugging me. I was hugging him, tears falling down his eyes, tears falling down my eyes, and we were just squeezing each other. He said something to me I will never forget. He said, Congressman Scott, when I am hugging you, it is like hugging a piece of home. I almost get choked up every time that happens. I am so glad that God gave me that experience. I am so glad we went there, and like other soldiers, a while later, that soldier died. That is the kind of sacrifice, and I went over there and looked in the eyes. Let me tell you another experience. When I was in Afghanistan and I went over there to Afghanistan, at the time when you remember the debate was over that if we had had this kind of body armor, that several thousand marines that have died or got wounded or would have been saved, that story came out. The Pentagon had given that report. So that was fresh on my mind when I was sitting there with this one unit. And in each one of the squads there is a sniper. There is an armor guy, an artillery guy, but each one has a sniper who the whole troop depends upon. And I started asking about the body armor and they started going around saying, yeah, we have all our armor on, but our sniper here, he will not wear the neck armor to protect himself from a head wound or a neck wound that would be almost fatal. And I asked him, I said why. He said, I won't wear that because it hurts my agility to be able to move my head to protect my troops. We have had many snipers. That kind of valor, that kind of courage, that is the kind of sacrifice that we are talking about at a time when we have not asked others in this Nation to make that sort of sacrifice.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Thank you so much and to my good friend, Mr. Israel. What a pleasure it is to serve, the three of us, as co-chairs of our Democratic Group on National Security and providing leadership for this Nation on this critical area, and also letting the American people know that Democrats stand, foremost, for national security. Our history, our legacy speaks to that. As we have counted time and time again, every time we have had a national crisis, Democrats have paved the way and brought us through, from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to Harry Truman, John Fitzgerald Kennedy. Who could be more strong than at the Bay of Pigs, at the missile crisis in Cuba, with the Soviet Union in the Cold War. We have been in the forefront in every aspect of protecting this country and we are at the forefront now. It is such a pleasure and I am just very proud to be here with you. I want to pick up on that theme because while we all salute the killing of al-Zarqawi, we are proud of that, we are proud of our military. We salute them for having done a remarkable job, but I think it is very important for us not to get too caught up in that as much as it is very important for us to look at this Iraq situation from the standpoint of the soldier, from that person that is on the front lines. Like the two of you, I have been to Iraq. I have been over into the war zone twice. I have been into the European theater. I have been into Afghanistan. I have been on the front lines with our troops. I have eaten with them. I have been there and I have talked with them, and I have looked them in the eyes and they have looked me in the eyes. We have been able to see and to be able to feel one another's passion and their pain. I am committed, as the two of you are, to make sure that we speak for the soldier, and this is what I want to do this evening. I want to talk about our military, and I want to talk about them from the standpoint of the sacrifices that our men and women in uniform are making. Most recently, we had in the news the disturbing story about the marines and about what happened over there, but I want you to know that this is one soldier here, this is one congressman, who is going to not come to any conclusions, because no matter what the situation is on that battlefield, where our marines, where our soldiers are, they did not choose to go over there. They did not choose to go over there with bad equipment, undermanned and in the rotation cycle that they have that has put tremendous strain on our military. Many of our marines, many of our soldiers, are over there not on their second tour, not even on their third tour. Some are on their fourth tour of duty. I talked with them. That is not right, and it is not fair. I think as we talk tonight we need to talk about the strain that this Iraqi situation is placing on our military so that when we judge our military, let us judge them right. Let us judge them with the hills and valleys and the mountains that they have got to go through over there. I want to talk about just for a second that nearly all of the available combat units in the United States, Army and the Army National Guard and the Marine Corps, have been used up in the current operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Every available combat brigade from the active duty Army has already been to Afghanistan and Iraq at least once for a 12-month tour. Many are now in their second or third tours of duty, and approximately 95 percent of the Army National Guard's combat battalions and special operation units have been mobilized since 9/11, and short of full mobilization or a new presidential declaration of national emergency, there is little available combat capacity remaining in the Army National Guard. All active duty Marine Corps units are being used on tight, tight rotation schedules, 7 months deployed, less than a year home to rest or recess, then another 7 months deployed, and all of the Marine Reserve combat units have been mobilized. The point I am making is that the decision to go to war is one thing. The other thing is you never make that decision and you send on a mission that is not clearly defined, that has been moving and shaking. Let us review for a moment just what our soldiers, just what our military has been asked to do. First of all, the mission was to go and find weapons of mass destruction, based upon faulty information and sometimes false information purposefully, for whatever purpose. We know all that now. We did not know it then, but we sent our military into that, and we sent our military in with not enough manpower. Seventy percent of the generals said we do not have enough manpower. The one person with the level of credibility, combat experience in this administration, Colin Powell, made the statement, We do not go to war without the size of the military we need to do the job. You go with massive force. Then secondly, once there were no weapons of mass destruction, the mission changed to go to find Saddam Hussein. We did that. Then to set up a free government. We did that, all under great, great obstacles. And then the test, to reconstruct the country. That was not the mission of our Army. So, as we sit back and as we applaud this great accomplishment today with al-Zarqawi, let us not forget the soldier. Let us not forget the difficult and challenging and meandering, constantly changing mission, not having the resources, going into dung heaps, going into landfills to get body armor. This country, and the very just passionate story that Steve Israel talked about on the front page of the Newsday and the Long Island newspaper today, America deserves better. I tell you one thing, they are going to get better because we in the Democratic group on national security, we are going to make sure of it. We are going to hold this administration accountable. We are going to point in a new direction, and we are going to give the American people the kind of strong, forceful, national security that they need and can be proud of.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. That is exactly the point we were making earlier in the debate early last week in terms of these tax cuts. I mean, we are here and this administration last week prides itself at a time when our soldiers are making these kinds of sacrifice, at a time that this administration will stand in the way of the concurrent receipts bill, and forcing our veterans to have to choose if they get injured or they get a wound in the battlefield, and they have to retire from the service, they have to choose between their retirement pay and their disability pay. This administration is standing in the way of correcting that, and at the same time will ask for tax cuts for the top 1 percent of the most wealthy people in this country, on the backs of not treating our veterans right, on the backs of not increasing the military widows' pay or giving the death benefits that we need or giving the military service people the raise that they need. This is why I was just so astounded at the glee that came from the Republican administration in passing a tax cut at a time of war, of great sacrifice. Never before in this history has that occurred.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to recognize the Hill-Smith family reunion and I ask that my colleagues join me in honoring this wonderful occasion. This reunion affirms the importance of family gatherings, drawing together relatives from Atlanta and as a far away as Boston, Massachusetts and Hartford, Connecticut. The Smith and Hill families celebrate the union of Thomas Landrum Smith and Armentis Hill which joined the two families in 1919. Eight children resulted from this matrimony, and from those eight children, 85 direct descendants and hundreds of other relatives who bear the surnames Smith and Hill. The Smith and Hill families organized their first reunion in Roanoke, VA in July of 1986. Over the next 20 years reunions were held every two years in New York, NY, Boston, MA, Jonesville, SC, Atlanta, GA, Pacolet SC, and Rocky Mount, NC. This year the Hill and Smith families will reunite in Stockbridge, GA for their tenth bi-annual reunion. Hundreds of relatives coming from every corner of the United States will reunite for a week of activities to reconnect and celebrate the meaning of family. Youth filled with zeal and exuberance along with elders seasoned by the wisdom of years will unite because of this occasion. The Hill-Smith family will welcome Marjorie S. Kirk of New York, NY with a special degree of warmth. At 83, Ms. Kirk will be the oldest family member attending this year's reunion. The youngest and most recent addition to the family is Maleek Thompson, born April 19, 2006. While only a few months old, Maleek will join his family traveling from Maryland to participate in his first reunion. The governor of the state of Georgia, Sonny Purdue, recognized this momentous gathering with a welcome letter and the host city of Stockbridge, GA issued a proclamation to honor the Hill-Smith reunion. I ask that this great legislative body stand with me and add to these acknowledgements by honoring the Smith and Hill families. I am proud to represent the Hill-Smith family members who call the 13th Congressional district of Georgia home.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, this week as we begin to go into this weekend to celebrate Memorial Day, it is most fitting that we take a moment to say a word about our soldiers, those who have fallen, who have given their lives in battle for the protection of this country and the enhancement of freedom around the world. And so it is with great pleasure and honor that I start this recognition off recognizing the great courage and work of our soldiers. From the Revolutionary War, as we recall, many soldiers who gave their lives to start the foundation of this country, many of those soldiers whose portraits hang in this great Capitol, several of those soldiers who walked with bloody feet through Valley Forge through the winter because we could not get them the proper boots to wear. But they went on and they fought against the odds and brought freedom and started this country; to the War of 1812; all the way through the Civil War, where brother fought against brother; the greatest contests in war that proved the metal of this country, up through the Spanish American War and World War I and World War II. From the halls of Montezuma, to the shores of Tripoli, our soldiers have been there for us. The Korean War and on down through the Vietnam War, maybe not popular, but the soldiers went where they were called and performed admirably; through Desert Storm and now in the sandy storms of Iraq. Mr. Speaker, I was just in Iraq in January, and one of the most memorable experiences I had during that trip was I was able to meet with our soldiers. And there was one soldier that, as I was in Camp Victory in Baghdad, who grabbed me and was hugging me so hard. Tears were coming down his eyes, tears coming down mine. And he said some words to me I will never forget. He said, Congressman Scott, when I am hugging you, it is like I am hugging a piece of home. I never will forget that. And 3 weeks ago, that soldier was killed. And so, oftentimes, we go about our business, and oftentimes, we take our freedoms for granted. But that is why we have Memorial Day, to say to those who have given their lives for this country, for our freedom domestic, thank you. Because there is no greater love than the one that would give his life for another. To all the men and women in uniform, to all who have served this country, we say thank you on this, the beginning of the celebration of Memorial Day.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Chairman, I rise to support the Deal amendment. It is very important to our State of Georgia. Georgia is one of the fastest growing States in this region, and because of this growth, we certainly need to make sure that we have this detrimental language, that would be very detrimental to Georgia, out of this bill. The manuals have not been updated for 50 years. Common sense would say that the corps is not operating based on the current situation in the area but on outdated population and outdated environmental information that was generated back in the 1950s. It is most important for my people that we have updated information, and that is why it is important for Mr. Deal's amendment to pass. These old, out-of-date manuals will result in a greatly increased cost of growth, inefficient and unpredictable operation of the river system, and will result in unstable water supplies for the municipalities, for the households and the businesses throughout our State of Georgia. Moreover, Mr. Chairman, for the last 15 years, the States of Georgia, Florida and Alabama have been engaged in litigation and mediation on this issue and much progress has indeed been made. But by placing this provision in the bill, Congress is now inserting itself into a situation that is best left for the State and the local entities to resolve. Therefore, I respectfully ask my colleagues to support the Deal amendment and let us move this offensive language out of the bill and move forward in the best interests of the entire region and certainly for the people of Georgia.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Absolutely, and I will tell you another example of the lack of response as well.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman. As always, it is indeed a pleasure to join you on the floor of our very distinguished Congress of the United States to address what is without a doubt the most pressing issue facing the American people, and that is security of our Nation, national security, homeland security. I think it is very important for us to make the first step, to show that we as Democrats are indeed not only strong on security, but we are the stronger party on security. Our legacy, our history is rich. We have built this military all the way through Democratic Presidents, from World War II with Franklin Delano Roosevelt, through the Korean War with Harry Truman, through all of the crises that we have had with Lyndon Johnson, with John Fitzgerald Kennedy; and with Bill Clinton leaving this Nation with a tremendous surplus and built a military that was capable of moving and being able to handle any threat in the world. But then 9/11 came and then President Bush's response. And I am here to say tonight that the American people deserve much better than what we have gotten in that response from President Bush and this Republican-led Congress. Let us review for a moment 5 years. Five years ago, 9/11 took place. And what has happened since that time? Can we say we are safer? Are our ports safer today? Obviously they are not, for not only do you and I and the rest of America know that only 5 percent of our cargo is being checked, the whole world does. The President's response to checking our ports was to turn the security over to a company that was owned by a country, the United Arab Emirates. That was one of only three countries in the world that recognize the Taliban as the ruling authority in Afghanistan. At a time when our young men and women were dying and are dying and putting their lives on the line fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan, our President, this administration, so cavalierly says let these people guard our ports, a nation that we had from our intelligence that proved to be the central banking process that handled the financing of al Qaeda and other terrorists coming through that country; yet this was the country that owned the company Dubai Ports to handle security at our ports, a country that we know from our intelligence that was the cross-trading ground for shipping nuclear material, building fusion material into Iran, who has subsequently said they want to knock Israel off the face of the Earth and then turn and do the same to the great Satan, the United States of America. That has been that response on the port security. And as Democrats have tried to do time and time again since then, to rein that in, joined by Republicans, we were successful in defeating that move, that very foolish and unwise move made by the President and this administration. And then, as we turn then to one of the worst disasters, perhaps the worst natural disaster in the history of this country, the very first opportunity for this Nation to be responsive to the major threat to homeland security, when Hurricane Katrina rolled in, another disturbing, disappointing, mismanagement, incompetence, and failure of the worst kind that resulted in the loss of over 2,000 American lives, billions and billions of dollars of loss and damage, farms and crops out of place, energy costs zooming, all because of slow mismanagement that we have not been able to recapture our place to this day. FEMA, the lead organization in homeland security, a total F in response. And right to this day, exactly 14 days before the next hurricane season begins, we do not even have not just an executive director of FEMA, we don't even have a regional director of FEMA in the Atlanta region, my home base, in the region which will be most devastated by a natural disaster and the hurricanes. And in that region, while I am at it, the response has been, even to reorganizing our military, even to realignment of our military bases, to take the primary base that trains, that deploys all of the National Guard and first responders in the event of a terrorist attack or a hurricane threat, a hurricane hitting this country at Fort Gillam. Instead of responding and building that base up, this administration comes in and recommends that that base be closed. And yet when Katrina hit, where did they have to turn? The only bright spot we had in the whole response to Katrina was to come and take our first responder commander, General Honore, and dispatch him down to the scene. Total mismanagement in every single aspect of response to our homeland security. Now here we are with a great threat to our borders, which, quite honestly, is perhaps the single most aspect of our own threat to not just homeland security but our national security, untold numbers, thousands of undocumented illegal immigrants sneaking into this country putting extraordinary downward pressure on our wage system, and providing in a way a very serious threat to the basic social services infrastructure of this country. But it just didn't happen overnight. Where has this administration been? Why are the American people so upset? Why are the polls so low in the face of these Republicans and this administration? It is obvious: slow response, mismanagement. And nowhere is it more exacting and exemplary than with the response to Katrina, a threat to our homeland, and a response to our border security. And that is what is happening. What is the response? Now it is because in this budget that they get on the floor and they are clapping about that they passed, a budget that cut homeland security by over $6 billion, a budget that would not fund the 1,000 border agents that the 9/11 Commission and a bipartisan group of us Democrats and Republicans in this Congress have recommended. And then to take and overtax the overextended National Guard that has been overextended in Iraq, in Afghanistan, in responding to our hurricanes, and to say now we are going to put them on the border. Too little, too late of the wrong type. And how hypocritical. How hypocritical to take 6,000 of our National Guard and put them on the border, but to cut the funding for an additional 1,000 to 2,000 border agents that actually need to be there? The American people want some answers to that. That is not an adequate response. America deserves better, and I assure you that Democrats are going to give them better.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. And the people are not asking for these tax cuts. They are not demanding these tax cuts. They are demanding that the borders be secure. They are demanding that gas prices come down. And it is a shame that this budget is not addressing this. And the President is about tax cuts. Well, they are not really tax cuts. They are deferred tax increases. Somebody has got to pay for those. And the tragedy is, Mr. Ross, that we are at the mercy in borrowing money from foreign governments. And not just any foreign governments. It is very important that we take a look at the major players on the international stage now as far as our basic fiscal insecurity is concerned. 90 percent, 90 percent of everything we are spending to run this Government of the United States today is on borrowed money. From China, nearly $300 billion. From Japan, nearly $700 billion. From Taiwan, $118 billion. From Hong-Kong, $127 billion. From the OPEC nations of Saudi Arabia and others in the Middle East, staggering, over $200 billion. You look at those countries, Mr. Ross, and you must realize that those are some of the same countries that are eating our lunch on this oil. The other countries that are eating our lunch on oil, Iran, Iraq, where we are mired, Saudi Arabia, again, where we are, and the Middle Eastern countries underneath have about 30 to 40 percent of all of the known oil reserves at this time. So if on the one hand you are borrowing money from the very same people who are holding you hostage for oil, that is a bad situation to be in. And the American people want us to address those issues. And they realize it takes resources to do that. Furthermore, we have to pay for these tax cuts, Mr. Ross. It is so disheartening to me that to pay for those tax cuts on the backs of our veterans. We are cutting veterans programs by $1.2 billion. We are raising their copay for their insurance that they use to buy their medicines over 100 percent. That is wrong, Mr. Ross. That is not what the American people are after. And that is why they are expressing it. As I said before, the American people have had it up to here.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Again, Mr. Ross, we must repeat because it is very important, we are here to do America's business. Every waking moment this Congress should be preoccupied with the three or four basic concerns that are threatening the quality of life in this country and very well threatening our own security, our borders. We have not heard enough of what we are going to do to secure our borders. We need to hear from this leadership, and we are hearing it from Democrats. I assure you, Democrats will control our border. Democrats will put the military on our borders. Let me tell you something, Mr. Ross. I worked for a while as a teacher, and my favorite subject to teach as was history because it taught you so much. And one of the things that you look back on history is that history teaches us a couple of things. It teaches us that if you forget your history, you are doomed to repeat it. And if you forget the bad parts of your history, they will certainly reoccur. We are at a very, very serious point in our country of having a very, very significant time of keeping our progress moving forward on each level of security. Let us first of all talk about this Nation's security. History shows us when we look back and we evaluate how we came about to formulate what is now called the National Guard was a need to do exactly what the National Guard was set up to do, guard our Nation. The first order of business to secure our borders is, number one, to put in the process of hiring and tripling the number of agents, putting forth the technical surveillance on our borders. But until we can get up to speed on that, we need to put our military strategy on our borders and send a message. We cannot take any more illegal immigrants coming into this country. It threatens the country. Even our immigrants who are here are saying the same thing. We can no longer not have our borders secure because of the war on terror. CNN is doing a wonderful report on our borders, and I am not just talking about the Mexican border. I am talking about the Canadian border as well, and if I am watching CNN and you are watching CNN, and Anderson Cooper is doing this wonderful special on CNN, I hope people will watch it because it is very revealing. I saw it this weekend. It showed about this little area up in Canada on the Canadian border somewhere north of Minnesota or something where the border is so porous up there that a guy comes in, goes into a little shack, opens the shack, speaks into a microphone, looks into a camera, and says I am so and so, I am crossing the border, thank you very much, and that is it, for those who will stop. I am scratching my head and I am saying, in this time of terror, if I am watching this, surely al Qaeda's watching it. I am telling you, it is just a matter of time before we get an attack as a result of not checking our borders. Some of our law enforcement people who are working some of these borders are saying that some of that may have already happened. I am telling you, if we do not check our borders, it is the most significant thing you can do, and you look at this budget and you show me in this budget where there has any priority or urgency to close down these borders. This is why the American people are upset. It is their security. It is their way of life. It is what we fought for. It is what generations have fought for. America, it is on the verge of being threatened out of existence. It has happened before. History is cluttered with the bleached bones of many great past civilizations who woke up too late to respond. Go back, look at your history books, look at Rome, look at the Ottoman Empire, look at the Netherlands particularly when it came to energy, and to a degree Great Britain. All of these powers lost because of those four things: global overreach, and not taking care of home and their border; dwindling resources at home; and the third thing, you guessed it, debt in the hands of foreign governments. We are headed down that path, and the American people are looking for us to change that direction. That is what my folks down in Georgia are saying. That is what they want us to do, and we have got to do it. That is why I am so proud that we are here as Blue Dogs, pointing the way, showing how we will be fiscally responsible. Nobody can take that away from us. There has been nobody manning the watch, watching this debt, long before it was up to this level of priority than the Blue Dog Coalition who have been at the front, Democrats at the front of the line, talking about financial responsibility and, foremost, paying down this debt. What a tragedy it is for this administration, this Congress to just lark along, borrowing all of this money, putting this extraordinary tax increase on the backs of our children and our grandchildren, and America's getting this. I was surprised this morning when I was down there in my district in Cobb County, and she mentioned those four things. Iraq, I knew; immigration, I knew, that is hot, that is heavy, oil prices, that is heavy. But then she says: And the debt. America is waking up and understanding this debt situation is placing this country in a very precarious position, and we have got to change it and be responsible. That is why it is important for us to put in pay-as-you-go measures, measures we have been preaching about for a long time. The American people are ready for that because if we do not, we, too, can go the way of so many of those past civilizations who woke up too late.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, under today`s prices, that $100 would get you two fill-ups if gas is at $3.25

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Ross, it is always a pleasure to come down on the floor and talk with you about the pressing issues facing our Nation and the world today. You know, Mr. Ross, you talked about the debt, and you talked about the budget. It is the budget that provides us with the blueprint. Just this morning, on my way, before I got on the airplane to get up here, I was talking with one of my constituents out in Cobb County, a town called Austell. I was talking to Ms. Winnie Smith, putting in a yard sign in her yard. She came up to me and she said, ``Congressman, our country is moving in the wrong direction. If you could just do four things. The four things I wish you all could do something about right away, one is secure our borders. We have a terrible problem with our borders. If we could just protect this country and protect our porous borders.'' Then she said, ``Bring down these gas prices. Please do something about the gas prices.'' Then she asked me, she said, ``Lord, if you could just do something and get our young men and women home out of this mess in Iraq. And then, Congressman, if you could just do something about this debt.'' I told her, ``Ms. Smith, you hit four things right there on the button.'' I want to just talk, if I can just take a few brief moments on each of these little points, and I want to use the budget that we probably may vote on, I hope we don't, because I truly believe that there are enough Republicans who are able to look through this smoke and mirrors of this budget and see that it is not the blueprint, it is not the direction that we want to go. Mr. Ross, if we could just take the first item that Ms. Smith, my constituent down there on Clay Road in Cobb County talked to me about this morning, and that is our borders. I thought I would get here and I would try to go through the budget here for a moment, because it is the blueprint. There is a howl and a cry the likes of which I have not seen in my whole 32-year history of being an elected official. For 32 years, every other year my name has been on the ballot somewhere in Georgia. Thank God the people of Georgia have voted me in each of those 30-some years, and I appreciate what the people of Georgia have done. But the cries from the people of Georgia and all across this Nation, nothing is as piercing and as meaningful as what they feel about the insecurity of the borders. Immigration issues, all of the other issues aside, what we do with the 11 million or 12 million illegals that are here, how we deal with that, all registers with folks, but the most important thing is what are we going to do about the borders? So I got here today and I went to work, and I want to report on exactly what this Congress, what the President, is proposing to do to secure the budget. You can have a lot of talk. I just listened intently to our friend Mr. King here a few minutes ago talking eloquently and very passionately about the border and the need to do so, and I concur with him. But the point is, what are we doing about it? Well, the American people need to know. I want to point out tonight what shows the shortcoming in this budget for four of the most pressing issues facing the American people today. The 9/11 Commission has given this Congress and this President a D on collaboration on border security. The 9/11 Commission December 2005 report card, Washington Republicans got a D on international collaboration on border security. The commission points out that there has been no systematic, diplomatic effort to work with other countries on shared terrorist watch lists to ensure terrorists cannot get across our borders. I start off with the motive of terrorism rather than immigration so the people understand that the insecurity of our borders is paramount in our war on terror. But as we get down to the immigration fight, and we just look at the one most important area, there are 1,000 fewer additional Border Patrol agents than were promised in the 9/11 act. This Congress, under the leadership of Republicans, and I must say that, not to be partisan, because I want to correct something immediately here. There are Republicans and Democrats who are equally concerned about this issue. That is why that budget has not passed yet. So I don't want this to be just purely partisan. This is not a Republican or a Democrat issue. This is an American issue, and this President and the Republican leadership of this Congress, not all the Republicans in the Congress, are clearly out of step, for they have broken the promise made on funding for additional Border Patrol agents. Quite honestly, Mr. Ross, we need at least three times as many agents. Immigrant enforcement agents and detention beds. Specifically in 2004 Congress enacted the 9/11 act, the Intelligence Reform Act, for those watching C-SPAN and want to check it, it is Public Law 108-458, which mandated an additional 2,000 Border Patrol agents being hired over each of the next 5 years. Yet for this fiscal year 2006, this Republican-led Congress has funded only 1,000 additional agents. Is it any wonder that our own citizens are taking it upon themselves, called Minutemen, to patrol our borders, because our government is letting them down, and it is clear in this budget. We funded only 1,000. The 9/11 act also mandated an additional 800 immigration enforcement agents over the next 5 years. Yet in this FY 2006 budget the Congress has funded only 350 additional agents. It mandated an additional 8,000 detention beds, yet in the 2006 budget the Congress funded only 1,800 additional beds. So it is no wonder that they are having difficulty getting this budget increased. Now, let me just say on this point of immigration, because I want everybody to understand exactly where this Congressman is coming from, earlier tonight I was watching on TV the Asian Pacific Caucus on this floor. It was a very moving presentation by them about the contributions that the Japanese Americans and Asian Americans have made, and particularly the Japanese Americans, particularly during World War II as their people were being interned in camps. Yet, similar to African Americans, they still fought for this country in the face of tremendous bigotry and odds, because they wanted to show we are Americans. That is what this immigration fight is about. Yes, we want to secure the boarders, but it is about being Americans. I was just in Miami, Mr. Ross, this past weekend with my wife. I was down there with the congressional wives and their foundation. I took it upon myself to visit and to do a little field work there. While I am at it, I want to give congratulations and kudos to the hospitality that the people of Miami Beach showed and the leadership Kendrick Meek and his wife provided for us as the host. It was wonderful. But the one interesting thing about Miami Beach that I found was most everybody is from somewhere else. If you want to see a melting pot, really want to see immigration and America at work at the same time, visit Miami Beach. I haven't been there for a while. I spent 3 days there this weekend. I talked to everybody. Whether they were Cuban or Mexican or Latin American or Caribbean or Jamaican or Haitian or Asian, they are all there in different ways. One of the things I did, Mr. Ross, was every time I would say thank you, I would add the phrase when I said thank you and shook their hand, I would say, ``You are a good American.'' And when I said ``you are a good American,'' a smile came over their face. I ask you to try it sometime, or anybody in country to try it sometime, and you will see people in this country understand and they get the point. This is America. We must translate that to some of those who are slipping and sneaking into this country to understand this is America, to understand it is one America, to understand that there is one language, English, there is one flag, there is one National anthem, there is one set of values. We have got to work to get that through. That was the story that came through so passionately on this floor earlier today with the story of the contributions of the Japanese Americans, because it says we are a country of immigrants. But on this issue, we want people to be legal, to pay their taxes and work hard the American way, learn our language, learn our values, as everybody else did. But the most important thing before we get to all that point is to secure our borders. I want to just mention quite quickly what we Democrats are doing, because a lot of times when we come up here and we talk, we talk about what the Republicans and the President are doing. Here is what I want the American people to understand, what we are doing on border security. On border security, since 9/11 House Democrats have repeatedly tried to increase appropriations for border security. For example, Representative David Obey, our senior Member on Appropriations offered a motion to recommit the conference report on the fiscal year 2005 supplemental appropriations bill with instructions to add $284 million to fund an additional 550 border patrol agents. That is securing your border. And also an additional 200 immigration agents. That is dealing with the immigration problem where it counts, and border aerial vehicles, using our technology. But Republicans defeated that motion to recommit by a vote of 201-225. Senate Democrats on the other side, as far as border security, Senate Democrats have also repeatedly fought to increase the border security appropriations. Senator Robert Byrd of West Virginia offered an amendment to the fiscal year 2005 supplemental appropriations bill to increase funding for border security by $390 million, providing for the hiring of additional border patrol agents and the operation of unmanned aerial vehicles. With support from 21 Republicans, Democrats succeeded in adopting the Byrd amendment by a vote of 65-34. That is what I said earlier. It is not just a Democratic fight, there are Republicans who are working with us on this. However, most of this additional border security funding was removed by the Republicans in conference. That is why when you look at the polls, when you look at what the American people are seeing, it is not just us here. The American people are not dumb. They know who is running this place. They know who is responsible for these high gas prices. They know who is responsible for the lack of appropriations and a lack of a budget with a proper blueprint that shows the vision this country ought to have on these critical areas. And these Republicans, they have got to plan for the blame for this bad situation with our budget and our deficit.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. This is exactly right. America's not crying out here for tax cuts for the top 1 percent. As a matter of fact, Bill Gates and several others said we do not want it; Mr. President, we do not need it. Those farmers need it for the drought. Those counties need it for the community block grant programs that is a lifeline of these counties. The children need it for their student aid programs and their loans, they need it. Firemen need it. Our first responders need it, and we need it to provide the incentives in place to help with our patrol. I want to mention because there was so much we wanted to cover tonight, but I cannot leave without saying this one thing. It really points an example of our lack of response, we have talked about it, to the border security problem, but look at our lack of response properly in this budget to our gas problem. Every basic issue that needs to be responded to, American people know we did not get to this point by just one thing. Oil companies have a lot to do with it, but their profits are not the real reason. The real reason is we have a serious shortage because we are being held hostage by most of the petroleum producing countries and because we have not planned properly with our refineries and because we have not planned properly with our automobiles and our guzzlers, and even when we move to do that, with one example, I just point out to you, the hybrid cars. The one good program that we could use would be that. There is nothing in the budget that even approaches what we need to do to give our American people true incentives, serious tax incentives to purchase hybrid cars, hybrid cars whose engines are run on a combination of electric batteries and gasoline. The key to our success, as far as bringing down these energy crises and stop making us so dependent on these other volatile Nations for our energy is to lower our consumption of oil, and to lower our consumption means we need to go elsewhere to find the fuel mix to do it. We can do it. We have got the American know-how. You take the hybrid engine. They have got, what is it, $2,000 for the tax credit now. It is going up to $3,400, but then there is all kind of complications in that make it so confounding that dealing with it is for the first manufacturer to produce 60,000 cars, then it goes down every quarter. It just gets so complex that the poor American people do not even have a clear angle with which to attack it and go out and purchase the automobiles. We need to clear that up. We need to put in this budget that we will give a 50 percent increase at least on the tax incentives and make that a going up scale so that we can get more hybrid cars running. We need to go and start giving incentives to farmers who are producing corn and soybeans, creating a new industry with which to produce ethanol, and mix that with our gasoline to be able to carry our fuel much like Brazil is doing. We need to enrich conservation programs to conserve our energy, and then, finally, we have got to do all we can to get the American people out of their automobiles, the commuter rail and with mass transit. But where is the will? Where is the direction? Where is the encouragement? Where is the inspiration to say let us go, America, we can do it? That is what the American people are waiting on, and we have got to provide the direction for them to do it. It is not this budget, and that is why it is not passing.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to pay tribute to one of this country's most important allies in the War on Terror, the State of Israel. Fifty-eight years ago today, at 4 p.m., 5th day of the Hebrew month of Iyar, David Ben Gurion read the Israeli Declaration of Independence over the radio ending 2,000 years of exile and persecution and fulfilling God's promise to return the Holy Land to the hands of the Jewish people. The Israeli government was founded to ``ensure complete equality of social and political rights to all its inhabitants irrespective of religion, race or sex,'' principles we here in this country cherish as well. By holding regular free elections, Israel has been an oasis of democracy in a vast desert of theocracies, serving as a beacon of hope for oppressed people everywhere. In less than 60 years, this open society has allowed the country to prosper economically, creating vibrant agricultural, industrial and technological sectors virtually from scratch and leading to successful foreign trade agreements. Israel has worked tirelessly to promote peace in the Middle East by achieving peace accords with Egypt and Jordan, an idea that would have seemed impossible in 1948. The Jewish State's many positive contributions to the world community exemplified by the Nobel Prizes in economics, chemistry, literature and peace that have been awarded to its citizens. It is hard to believe that all of this has come out of a country no bigger than New Jersey and that it perseveres in the face of constant adversity. If one of the main planks of our foreign policy is to spread democracy and promote freedom around the world, then I can think of no better way to accomplish that goal than by strengthening the bond between our countries and offering it as an example to the rest of the world. Israel Independence Day, or Yom Ha'atzmaut in Hebrew, provides Jews in this country an opportunity to demonstrate their solidarity with and strengthen their alliance with the State of Israel. It is fitting, then, that I stand here at the beginning of the very first Jewish American Jewish Heritage Month in which we will celebrate the 352 year history of the Jews' contributions to American culture. Therefore, I ask my colleagues to join me in supporting this resolution, congratulating Israel on 58 years of independence and I look forward to building an even stronger relationship with our friends in the years to come.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, it is a double-ended stick too, because we must understand what this means in terms of the President will say, well, we are borrowing this money, we are making these budget cuts for tax cuts, so we can give tax cuts to the top 10 percent of this country, when they are not tax cuts. America needs to understand, they are not tax cuts. They are deferred tax increases, deferred tax increases, because somebody has got to pay for that. It is not fair. I have got two lovely little grandchildren. I love them to death. I have got two children. That debt is going to be on them. That is not fair. It is not fair to do that. Now I need to talk about one other thing so that we will know clearly, as you spoke on renewable energy programs and as we talk about this budget, the budget that again we will hopefully not have the votes for again. But let's talk about it, because you have got to look at the President's actions and the Republican administration's actions. Like I said earlier when we first started out, you can't blame the Democrats. We are not in charge. I hope that the American people will give us that opportunity this November to be in charge. Then we will be responsible. But I guarantee you one thing; we won't point the finger at the Republicans. We will say, as Harry Truman said, ``The buck stops here.'' We will say, as John Fitzgerald Kennedy said, ``Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country.'' We will do what Franklin Delano Roosevelt said, ``The only thing we have to fear is fear itself.'' That is what the American people are waiting for. They are waiting to be challenged. They are waiting to be inspired. We don't need our country run by the Middle East, by Iran, Iraq or Saudi Arabia. We don't need it run by China or India. That is not what made America great. America became great because of our own inventiveness. We can become energy independent. All we have to do is unleash the mighty, free enterprise spirit within America. If we know that oil is a diminishing resource, it is foolish for us to plan the future of this great Nation on a ready supply of oil, when we know it is running out. We have proven that. We have got to be bold. We must have vision. We must understand, and we must not be like those other previous civilizations on whose bleached bones are written those pathetic words, ``too late.'' Rome moved too late, the Ottoman Empire moved too late, the Dutch Netherlands moved too late and even Great Britain moved too late. Will we move too late, Mr. Ross? I don't think so, because there is too much can-do spirit in this country. That is what made America what it is, and that is what is going to take us forward. We have the leadership, we have the will, we have the vision, and we can be what the American people want us to be.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. The gentlewoman from Texas brings up a very interesting point in terms of our energy crisis and how it dovetails with our debt, one of the important points we have got to look at so we can see the dangerous track we are on. Mr. Ross, you just went through one of the most disturbing facts of our debt and that is the indebtedness that we are in to our foreign investors, borrowing more money from them than all the 42 Presidents combined. But let us look at who they are. Let us look at who they are who are controlling our financial security. They are the very same nations that are controlling our energy security. China and India, on the one hand, Japan, the OPEC countries, the countries in the Middle East, on the other hand. Each of these areas are controlling our debt, and they are controlling our oil. The United States of America consumes 25 percent of the world's energy. But we produce or have access to just the refining and production capacity of just 5 percent. Put that together with the fact that one thing nobody mentions, not the President, not anybody, but it needs to be mentioned, and that is that why should we be taking this time to plan the future of this great country on a diminishing resource? Every point, and I bring this to you again, this is a quote from a president, former president of Exxon-Mobil. I talked about the other's salary a minute ago to show the discrepancy. Here's what, 3 years ago, John Thompson, president of Exxon-Mobil said. He said, we estimate that the world's oil production from existing oil fields is declining at an average rate of 6 percent a year. To meet projected demand in 2015, the industry will have to add about 100 million barrels a day in new production. That is equal to 80 percent more than we are producing today, and oil is not a replenishing asset. That brings me to the issue of where we really need to be planning for the future of this country is not on a diminishing resource of oil that is not going to be there in the future. We have got to look elsewhere. And I tell you this, Mr. Ross: if Brazil can take sugar cane and solve their energy crisis and turn it into fuel for their automobiles with ethanol, why in the world can't we do that in America with our corn or with our other biofuel capacities, with our research? We have got the American can-do spirit. The problem is we need to unleash it, and we have got to do it, not depending upon oil that is a diminishing resource, but have the vision, have the courage to look to the future. And I tell you, surely, if Brazil can solve their problem with using one of their natural replenishable resources of sugar cane to provide their major source of fuel, surely we can do as well as that. And we must do that.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. The American people are fed up with this, I assure you.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Ross, you cannot help but feel compassion for the American people. They deserve much better than this, with Katrina, the natural disasters that are happening and the lack of response of FEMA. You talk about FEMA. I had a similar problem in my own district, where we had literally thousands of trailers sitting right there on the campus of Ft. Gillem. Weeks, weeks, weeks went by, not going down into the Louisiana area. Lack of coordination, lack of proper direction. The American people deserve much better than this, and we are going to give them much better. We have got to change the direction of this country. It is implicit in the debt that we are having. It is implicit in the response and the concerns with the rising gas prices. It is implicit in what is happening with the depletion of our military and our armed services, in the service of Iraq and Afghanistan. It is implicit in the situation with the Dubai Ports deal, even to think that they would turn over the security of this country to a company owned by a country who was only one of three countries to recognize the Taliban as the authority, ruler, in Afghanistan, while we have got our young men and women dying and fighting the Taliban. A tremendous disconnect. And it is obvious it is there. As I said at the outset, we are here to be sojourners of truth. And we are sojourners of truth here tonight.

Mr. SCOTT of Georgia. Mr. Speaker, one of the points, just to add to what you are saying to show the real gravity of this situation, is this: Just the interest, just the interest alone that we are paying back on this, is the fastest growing part of our budget. Just the interest. Combined, that interest amounts to more than all of what we are spending for veterans, for education and for our own homeland security. The interest just is overwhelming. Now, I want to make a point, because you brought it home, and as you were explaining that, the gentleman from Tennessee, I was reminded of a little history lesson here. If you would look back through history at all of the great civilizations, great nations, from the Roman Empire to the British Empire to the Ottoman Empire, they all collapsed from three important things: Global overreach, diminishing resources at home and an overwhelming, irresponsible debt in the hands of foreigners. We are on the verge of handing our country over to foreigners, in our fiscal area, in our petroleum area and because of a lack of security on our borders. I tell you, Mr. Ross, the American people are dialed in on this. They are concerned about this and they want some leadership. They want vision. They want our borders secure. They want America to be America. Why can't we be independent in our resources, if we can make fuel to run our automobiles from corn? We know we can. Do you know why? Because the very first automobile manufactured by Henry Ford, the Model T, you know what it was fueled by? Ethanol made from corn. What more evidence do we need?