desert -- or, i'm sorry, down in the jungles of southern panama and northern colombia. they put us in this jungles. after receiving our training, we the there and let down jungle canopy. anybody down here below you has a sonic boom. here comes the big parachute. comes down, hits the ground, and any people there if you are dropped in the middle of the aborigines outback or in that area of new guinea that i just spoke of, and there's another bang and you blow the hatch off this thing

and out steps this thing in a silver suit. good chance you will be either dead or elected chief very, very fast. would be a good idea to be able to communicate with these people, so i drew up a message and we headed into some of the linguists, and i think they farmed it out at the library of congress to pick the most likely dialects of some of these remote languages along the track and put it down phonetically so i would have a message if i had to make an emergency reentry and came down in one of those places. you can imagine the message, friends, take me to your leader, .ig reward, things like that one of the interesting things that came out of that was of a more serious note, i thought. a littleessage for us

bigger than that piece of paper i carried with me. many of those languages, the word for stranger and the word for enemy -- it's the same word. somebody, younow have not gotten acquainted with them, they are an enemy. when actually, if you just got to know them a little bit, they will probably be a friend. stranger and enemy, i think there is a big message there for all of us. the doctors had some ideas about what we might run into, that the eyeballs might change shape in weightlessness. part ofook on the upper the instrument panel, you will see a little tiny vision chart, a miniaturized version of the one you have in the doctors office that i was to read every 20 minutes during flight. we had an ekg and we put that on so many times during training, and one day i told our flight surgeon we should have some marking on the skin so we always put it on the same spot so we

got better, more reliable, repeatable information. he thought that was a good idea, he took his scalpel and rest of the skin in little bit and put a drop of india ink on it. to this day, i have a little blue black spot here, here, here, and down here, so we have the reliability of having the name spot. the flight went on the 11th schedule date. actually suited up for times. once it was canceled while i was going down in the van. forlaunched and got the go seven. they said at that time even though we only intended to go for three, but that was the lingo we used in the control center at that time. we're up there, and i get control system checks and we are ready to go to work. you probably remember a comedian who back in the old days had a character he portrayed as being a reluctant astronaut.

that became quite popular among the astronauts back at that time. we used to kid each other. bill had this one routine about because there had been some animals sent up and mice and so on on different tests, bill had this whole routine where he felt so sorry for the little mouse and why don't we just let the little mouse out of the snowcone. whenever we had some tests we were doing, somebody with -- out. come up with, "let me i feel like the little mouse in the nosecone." when i reached up, floating up out of there came the little mouse. the tale was tied on so it could

,ot get loose and do any harm but it had alex shepherd written all over it, i guarantee you that. place, gotten it some and i guess we all needed a tension breaker every once in a while, and that was a good one. that was one of my prize possessions. we had some problems, as you saw pictures, a little while ago. i will not go into those, but we had some automatic control problems. the heat shield came back in ok for that. fast-forward to 1996. for the senateng and nasa budgeting. they had noted about 52 different changes that occur in the human body in space for a

lengthy time. there were nine of those in particular that stood out to me because they are things that also happen to the elderly as you age right here on earth. setss such as osteoporosis in. for the young people of in space, cardiovascular changes, balance changes, muscle system protein turnover, protein replacement in the muscles, coordination changes, immune system changes. you get less resistant to disease and infection. sleep patterns change, obviously, but drug and nutrient absorption becomes different. all of these are things that happened to the younger astronauts. they recover. when those things happen to you just by aging here on earth, you do not get any better. i approached the nasa doctors if they had ever thought of sending someone up there to see what the reaction would be. i sensed a that aging people were also very interested in

this. the idea was could we find out by patterning differences between the elderly and those younger people and maybe learn what was in the human body that turns these systems on and off. if we could, maybe we could make it possible for younger astronauts to make longer flights and maybe believe some of the elderly of some of the frailties of old age right here on earth. they put that out for study for over year. they came back and said yes, we were able to go, and, fortunately, i was able to qualify physically. national institute of aging interest in this is of these. in the year 2000, we had some 34 million americans over the age of 65. that's due to go over 100 million by the year 2050. that pattern is going on all over the world. if we can make some breakthroughs in that particular area, we not only can keep younger people up in space longer without having some of these harmful effect and maybe erase the frailties of old age

right here on earth. it is a toe in the door. it is a start. hopefully down the road four or five years or six years from now, i would hope we would have sent more people in this age bracket of their so we have a database much more meaningful to this.ientists who work in i will not go through all the differences here, but sgs 95 where we lifted off on discovery, about 3 g's. about 8.5ries takes minutes instead of just over five as mercury did, but the scientific equipment you are g'sng could not take nine without being much heavier and probably with less accuracy than it is now. you have a longer time going up, levels. low g same thing coming back in. you do not get above letter -- you do not get above two g's.

food has improved measurably, i can tell you that. from the tube food back in the olden days to 42 choices now. .he cubic square feet shuttle has about 2500 square feet, and it does not include the tunnel and the space effect where we ran a lot of the experiments. asked when i give a talk at a school about body functions. now you have in the shuttle a system almost like what you have at home. not quite. you have to remember you are still weightless while you're in

there, so you have little spring-loaded handles come up and come out over your thighs to hold you down, and when you get ready to take care of your business, you pull a handle, edit slides a thing out from under you and starts airflow down into the toilet. otherwise, they would float around and you don't want that. then you reversed that process coming out. , how many computers i've been asked many times that i have on the mercury flight. i had zero. there were not on that flight. on the last flight we have not only the three computers that control the altitude of the spacecraft and its functions, but we had 18 laptops because on the last flight, the mission of the whole space program had changed. innow were interested mainly basic fundamental research, not just going up to see if we could do it. going up with 83

different research projects all the way from putting a satellite through our payload bay that would make some special measurements on the spartan-based spacecraft, clear down to some bio micro molecular studies of biology and vice samples and things like that, so it went the whole gamut of things. been a curious questing nation. we've learned the new and the unknown first and pushed back the frontiers of knowledge more than any nation in history. putur democratic system, we it to work, creating jobs, industries, new standards of health and living and become the envy of the world. if there is one thing we've learned is that basic research usually has a way of paying off in the future more than anything we can see at the outset, and that has been true throughout history. if it's alexander fleming curious about, of all things, mold in the bottom of ap

treatise, and out of his curiosity comes penicillin and the beginning of the whole antibiotics industry and changing of life expectancy .round the world curiosity, jefferson sends lewis and clarke off. franklin is curious about electricity. sometimes it is a fact that is learned that does not have immediate use but fits a pattern later on that lets us make a quantum leap forward in whatever it is. is beingrystal growth done with a purity and size you cannot do here on earth and that is useful in the study of pharmaceuticals. there are always doubters, but if there's one thing i think

we've learned its that we are well served by money spent on research. obviously, we're not going to turn all our money over to research, but we can certainly throw enough of it in to make use of that station now better than we are doing because it has been cut back and i know we have to get our finances under control. it was designed for six or seven people. right now, we're able to maintain three people right now. the amount of research is going to be curtailed from what it could have been. this is the first time we have ever had a chance to get into in space,of research and i think it's going to be one of the most valuable. we said we would have time for q&a tonight. maybe we can get to that right now in what time we have left. [applause] >> we will start with two

.uestions wondered what your thoughts were when you were being launched into space for the second time. senator glenn: did you mean mercury? talking into a tape recorder and how does that compare to your most recent experience. senator glenn: it was a very different type of flight and different confidence level because the first time up, we had not had a perfect flight ,ecord on some of the boosters but this time around, we had 100 tournament flights and only one failure out of all of those, which is an amazing safety record when you are dealing with speeds and complexities and perg almost five miles second up there and coming back in an atmosphere with high heat

out three or four eight in front. so you are dealing with things like that. though, we had a much greater experience level than we did the first time up. my talking into the tape recorder, i did not do as much of that as i had planned before. i had that tape, but it is not particularly valuable. nothing that had not been told 100 times before. in reentry, humming "the battle hymn of the republic" -- senator glenn: bunch of garbage. [laughter] senator glenn: tom wolfe i

thought did a good job in the book. i just thought when they got hooked up with it and they sort of handed up badly enough that it did not bear a whole lot of relationship to reality. the problem was they advertised the movie as being almost a documentary of the early space days, but i was working my tail off coming back in because the automatic system was out. i went out at the end of the first orbit. i had gone manual and during that time coming back in, there were oscillations building up and i was trying to dance them out and i was working very, very was, and the last thing i doing was sitting there singing to myself. they just made that one up. another 1 -- they had the fireflies i saw, the specs of their. in the movie, they made that out to be a cap fire in australia where the aborigines had a

campfire and the sparks were coming clear up and going up into space. any high school physics -- you know, that just does not happen. the sparks continuing on up into the atmosphere, and i appreciate the symbolism of all this. even in hollywood, they notice sparks cannot get up that high. >> senator glenn, this question i guess this not have a i wascut answer, but wondering if perhaps one of the reasons that over a seven might have gone a little bit less than perfect could have been that commander carpenter only had six , and youret ready

flight had been delayed a couple of months and did not really train so much as help you get for friendship seven. senator glenn: i do not think that was the case at all because we always trained very hard. any of the seven could have gone on any mission at the time. we were all adequately trained. there was a misalignment on the spacecraft. when the retro rockets were fired. remember if you are traveling almost five miles a second, each second in error gives you five miles off and any misalignment would also give you the improper vector to get you down with a plan for you to come down, so does not take much air up there to give a considerable distance off.

it's just a very complex thing coming -- oh, i know what i was going to say. in those days, you took a ballistic reentry. whatever your retro fire was, it was ballistic from then on. you have no control where you were going to land. there was a little misalignment between the center of lift, the center of pressure on the heat seal and the center of gravity. were off, itnow .ould tilt overload they use that later on in "apollo" to do exactly that, to control a more precise landing. on mercury, we actually after retro fire set up a greater rotation so if there was a misalignment, it did not take you off some place, it would be equaled out as you rotated, but

it does not take much error to get a considerable distance off target. >> [inaudible] >> review this for the recording ? >> could you characterize the relationship between von braun and the astronaut? we worked very well. at the management level, some problems developed, and those were written about, so i don't think i need to go into them. we were just trying to do our job. a number ofith him times. he was a very unique person, very capable person. i think he had a characteristic that i've been known for. a lot of opportunity to meet great people who have done great things, and it seems to me most people that had that

characteristic have another characteristic. they had an inordinate and large curiosity about everything around. they are curious about everything. can we design a better microphone? a better clock when we went to huntsville, he asked us up for dinner, so we went up to his home in whenville, and i expected we went into his library that here would be all the books on engineering and math and mechanics and all this type of stuff and that would be it. instead of that, i went into his library for the first time, here were all the books on religion and ethics and philosophy and a few books on math and science and things like that, but his library was mainly filled up by other things. very broad-based person. ask him about religion or philosophy and you were in for a two-hour discussion, so i enjoyed being with him, and i think the other astronauts did, too.

>> senator glenn, i want to thank you for coming out today. appreciate it. one quick thing -- can you show us the four black spots on your body? [laughter] i would like you to if you would memoriesiscuss your and relationship to gus. senator glenn: there was a no gus.dedicated person than he was a tiger at working at things and keeping in shape. we build homes that were not too far apart. we were side by side and back on ,he street about 100 yards away so we are also out of it a little area, and that was really a tragic loss.

was a mistake to have a 100% oxygen environment does all you have to do is remember high school physics where you had a beaker of oxygen and a little red hot wire and you did the wire, and remember the metal earned when you put it in. the mistake that was made on that as near as they can was a piece there of paper that maybe should not have been there, and they think a spark came out from during the , and once the sparks at the paper, that was it. it was practically explosive. those are three fine people that were lost. not only gus, but roger chafee and and white. had was the only loss nasa before we have the challenger accident. but gus was a good friend and is

still missed to this day. >> senator glenn, all the previous questions have focused on the past. let's talk about the future for a moment. what is next for john and andy -- john and annie glenn? senator glenn: i'm just trying .o keep up with annie i suggested we should put in and try to go as a couple into space. [applause] : lest you think this is something i'm coming to you with one of these days, she only has one caveat to this -- she wants to be up there, and she wants to look down and see everything up there. she just does not want to go through the launch. i don't know how you do that. weiously, one of the things are doing, of course, was mentioned earlier.

the center or institute for oflic service, public policy ohio state. i have felt the last 15 years or so that we had so much cynicism that it could be a hazard for the future, seriously. because our democracy pretense -- depends upon people participating. into the archives building, their system, there it is. the greatest single document on government ever put forward in all of human history. yet, we might as well take it out front and burn it on the front steps unless we are willing to try to take those words off taper and make them come real for everybody in this country. the favoredot just few but everybody. that is what democracy is all about. not a communist type thing.

[applause] senator glenn: i have always looked at politics as being the personality -- the personnel department for the constitution, and i think it is every bit that. encouragement did not come as a member of the space program. it came when i was in high school. i had a wonderful teacher in high school who just made civics come alive. it was the study of government and politics. that's where it came from a noise after that i had some little thing around that i was reading or something, if i was overseas or wherever on government and politics. never thought i would be able to run myself but did later on by circumstances. we are working on this thing at ohio state. i think september 11 helped rekindle some of the interest in young people. has done a here

great job on our outreach program. we've had an outreach program over the last year on service .earning the secretary of education asked a study of math and science teaching in the 21st century. i was glad to do that and some of the things we found were just frightening as far as education goes. the third international math and science study was was done on 41 nations around the world rating their kids up to about the fourth grade, our kids rate in the top tune of or three. when they get out of high school, our kids are two or three from the bottom. we found 20% of the math teachers in high school never majored or minored in math themselves.

somebody says, "you are going to ," and theynext year are barely ahead of the kids. it's no wonder we are behind. same thing in science. never studied it, and yet, we are expecting them to teach it. and we came out with a holster and the things we made suggestions on for how we correct this. ande doing things like that showing some things in washington we are interested in. that is about it. >> we want to thank you for what andbeen an amazing evening having you share your experiences with us. senator glenn: i have one thing i would like to do if i might. you have been a wonderful audience tonight. we appreciate that. last weekrit of the or so, we thought we ought to rate the audience tonight. families, stand up if you will.

[applause] >> good thing you did not know you were under that pressure. senator, thank you very much. it is interesting. since you were a key player in the space race that we are presenting you tonight with some russian laser art that depicts the first flight of the wright brothers. this is a limited edition, and we are very pleased. you are the first one to receive this. editor glenn: well, that's great

. thank you. thank you. beautiful. [applause] >> we want to thank the boeing their sponsorship. without their sponsorship, these types of events would not be possible, and we are very much indebted to you. thanks, harry, for being here tonight. glad you got a good seat. there will not be an autographed opportunity this evening and we ask that you exit through the rear doors of the theater. thank you so much for supporting our program. we will see you. [applause] [captions copyright national cable satellite corp. 2016] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. visit ncicap.org]

>> the house passed legislation to keep federally funded -- federal agencies funded through april 2017. in a look at crime and its legacy in the trunk administration and later, donald trump holding a rally with supporters in des moines. all day saturday, american history tv on c-span3 is

featuring programs about this week's 75th anniversary of the japanese attack on pearl harbor. national archives' christopher carter reads from navy logs describing ships under attack followed by the burial of john h arlington national cemetery. his remains were recently identified 75 years after the attack. pearlur poor -- tour harbor attack sites with historian daniel martinez. at 9:30, president franklin d roosevelt lost -- roosevelt's speech to congress asking for a declaration of war, followed by a ceremony at pearl harbor cohosted by the national park service and u.s. navy. from 11:00 to 1:00 p.m., we are taking your calls and tweets live. war andssed the pacific

the attack on pearl harbor through the u.s. victory over the japanese at the battle of midway and it new eastern, we are live with the author of "eyewitness to infamy: an oral history of pearl harbor," giving a behind the scenes account. harbor 75thl anniversary ceremony from the national world war ii memorial in washington, d.c., with keynote remarks by arizona senator john mccain. saturday on american history tv on c-span3. >> the house passed a measure to continue funding the federal government through april 28. the boat was 326-96. the white house criticized republican congressional leaders for not adequately addressing expiring health and pension benefits are cold miners. the continuing resolution goes to the senate with government midnight friday.

>> mr. speaker, i rise before you today to present the second fiscal year 2017 continuing resolution this year, which will fund the federal government through april 28, 2017. 2017. this bill is a necessary measure this bill is a necessary measure to continue vital government programs and services. it keeps the lights on in our government, preventing the uncertainty and harm of a shutdown. shutdown. our current continuing resolution expires tomorrow, so we must act today. this continuing resolution is a responsible compromise making only limited adjustments were required to preserve the security of the nation, to prevent serious lapses in government services and the careful expenditure of taxpayer dollars.

to highlight a few of these changes, we take care of our troops by increasing overseas contingency operations resources and include provisions that accelerate production rates for equipment and systems like the ohio replacement submarine, the pache helicopter and the kc 46 ---46-a. and provides funding for the department of homeland security to keep our nation safe. in addition to these changes, the bill includes necessary funding to help communities recover from recent natural disasters like hurricane matthew, flooding in states like louisiana and west virginia and devastating droughts. legislation also includes $170 million for important health and water infrastructure improvements as well as $872 million for the house passed

21st century cures act and $500 billion to respond to the opioid abuse epidemic. these items are both fully offset. as i have said on this floor many times over the past six years standing in this exact spot, a continuing resolution is the last resort and not what i would prefer to bring to the floor as final bill as chairman of the appropriations committee. at the end of the day, a c.r. is simply a band-aid on a gushing wound, which is no way to run a railroad. it's bad for congress, bad for the federal government, bad for our country. a c.r. extends outdated policies and funding levels, wasting money and preventing good changes from being made. a c.r. also creates uncertainty in federal budgets and in our

economy. and lastly, it diminishes the congress' power of the purse, giving away to people's voice in how the government uses their tax dollars. i truly hope that in the near future we can stop lunching from c.r. to c.r. and return to regular order for the sake of our national security, our economy and the well-being of all americans. however at this point, this is our best and only path forward. it's absolutely imperative that we complete the work on the 11 remaining appropriations bills as soon as possible when congress returns. this is a good bill. and i urge my colleagues to vote yes on the c.r. and i reserve. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentlewoman from new york is recognized. mrs. lowey: mr. speaker, i yield

myself such time as i may consume. today we consider the second continuing resolution to keep most of the government open. to say that i am disappointed in this band-aid approach to operating the government would be an understatement. the legislation before us is an abdication of responsibility for the entire congress. it is a disgrace that more than two months into the new fiscal year, congress will kick the can down the road nearly another five months for purely partisan reasons. having already failed this year to adopt a budget, pass appropriation bills and restore regular order, the majority's failure to enact full year funding is not surprising, but nonetheless shameful. several administration requests

were either not included or drastically discounted. the commodities future commission would be frozen under this c.r. likely causing staff furloughs and making it impossible to protect market participants. . i'm concerned about the majority including just $7 million, 1/5 of the amount requested by the administration and by new york city, to reimburse new york for the cost of helping new york and other state and local governments protect the president-elect until his inauguration. local and state taxpayers should not be forced to foot the bill for the federal responsibility of protecting the president-elect. i view the amount in the c.r. as a down payment, and i'm putting the majority on notice

that a future funding bill must fully cover these costs. at a time when economic hardship is common among those who've worked in unsafe and unhealthy coal mines, this congress should be united in ensuring these men and women have both the health and pension benefits they have earned. these hardworking individuals need more than empty promises. i'm pleased the c.r. provides additional funding to respond to natural disasters, to assist flint, michigan, in recovering from a lead crisis, to respond to threats abroad, to prevent opioid addiction and to support biomedical research. however, we should have made these investments along with a full-year bill that would have dealt with every government program.

finally, this bill should not include the provision that would limit debate on providing a waiver to allow the next secretary of defense to have been retired from active duty for less than the current requirement of seven years. civilian leadership of the military is a bedrock principle of our democracy, and any new standard deserves full debate by the congress. i know chairman rogers worked to have the appropriations committee return to regular order. i've tried to be a partner with him because i think the american people want us to do our jobs of keeping the government operating. notwithstanding the constraints facing the chairman, the bill we consider today should be a bipartisan full-year spending measure. thank you, mr. speaker. i reserve the balance of my time.

the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from new york reserves. the gentleman from kentucky. mr. rogers: mr. speaker, i'm very proud to yield three minutes to the gentleman from new jersey who will assume the chair of the appropriations committee come january and in whom i have great confidence and pride, mr. frelinghuysen. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. frelinghuysen thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for the time. i rise to urge support of the -- mr. frelinghuysen: thank you, mr. chairman. thank you for the time. i rise to urge support of the continuing resolution. i want to thank mr. rogers as he manages this appropriations bill. i know i speak for ranking member lowey and all members of the committee, republicans, democrats, our remarkable professional staff when i say this body and this nation owes a tremendous debt of gratitude for his many contributions on the appropriations committee for 30 years and as its chairman for the last six. no one understands better than

hal rogers the house's constitutional duty to responsibly fund the federal government. no one has defended this body's power of the purse with more vigor. he's always supported rigorous oversight. under chairman rogers' leadership, the committee has held over 600 public hearings to ensure that federal tax dollars were well spent. and the committee has earned results, cutting wasteful spending to the tune of $126 billion since fiscal year 2010. in fact, the chairman has worked tirelessly to restore trust in the spending process all with professionalism, good humor and class. mr. chairman, i know i speak for all members of the committee, all members of the house in extending to you our heart-felt thanks for your continued service on the committee and your remarkable service as chairman. on the resolution, briefly, the

is ity is, and this relative to national security. war ality is we are in engaged with those in iraq and afghanistan and elsewhere. we have no greater responsibility to ensure that our men and women have the resources that this continuing resolution assures they can -- so they can carry out their missions and return home safely. in this regard, we've scrubbed the president's budget amendment, $5.8 billion, for overseas operations. in doing so we've redirected funding for stocks of various munitions that our troops need to fight isis and the taliban. increase activity on behalf of the russians, we provided our nato allies. this resolution needs to be supported for national defense, homeland security and, again, i salute chairman rogers for his leadership and i yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from kentucky

reserves. the gentlewoman from new york is recognized. mr. speaker, i'm leased to yield four minutes to the gentleman from indiana, mr. visclosky, the ranking member of the defense subcommittee of appropriations. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for four minutes. mr. visclosky: thank you, mr. speaker. i want to thank the gentlelady for yielding. i ask unanimous consent to place my entire statement in the record. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, so ordered. mr. visclosky: i'm sorely dispinted that despite the best efforts of chairman rogers, mrs. lowey and all the members of the committee we yet again find ourselves in the position of considering another continuing resolution. in june on the floor i stated that our fiscal year begins on ctober 1, 2016, not may 1, 2017. and it is the responsibility of those of us holding office in this session of this congress to execute the 2017

appropriation process. we should not foist our responsibility upon the next. unfortunately, almost six months later, it is appropriate to repeat myself. as the ranking member on defense, i feel it is important to highlight some of the complicationes that we are compounding for next year -- complications that we are compounding for next year, ain, despite the work of mr. frelinghuysen. first, the c.r. hinders the d.o.d. to adapting to conditions around the globe. although we have included a few adjustments in this c.r., many more programs and initiatives were not addressed and we will have created unforeseen but real impacts to our war fighters and their families. second, the defense budget that we are defering was planned for back in late 2015. complete the

appropriations process by april 28 will present the department with a fundamental management challenge. third, it will require a significant amount of interchange with the d.o.d. for congress to complete the work for the remainder of this fiscal year's appropriation in the spring. those same individuals in offices in theand the department will simultaneously be making changes for the 2018 budget for the new administration. and while it is likely that the 2018 budget request will be delayed beyond the normal first week in february, the two activities will overlap significantly, and it creates inefficiencies. let me also point out the department will be well into the development of its fiscal year 2019 budget at the same time. the department will be presenting the fiscal year 2018 budget to the congress. at the same time it will patiently be waiting for the

resolution of this budget, all the while operating under 2016 levels that we have now extended with two consecutive c.r.'s. this c.r. has the likelihood of being particularly disruptive because it also coin sides with the change in the -- coincides with the change in the executive branch. we add a much greater burden to the incoming administration and the next congress by not completing our work now. in closing, i again appreciate the chairman, ranking member, the staff's work, the committee's work. i regret that we find ourselves on the house floor again creating manufactured uncertainty. i would yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentlewoman from new york reserves. the gentleman from kentucky. mr. rogers: mr. speaker, i now want to yield three minutes to the gentleman from oklahoma who chairs the largest civilian

piece of the federal budget, the labor-hhs subcommittee on our committee, the gentleman who is the most articulate member of our committee, i would say, and one of the great members of this body. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from oklahoma is recognized for three minutes. mr. cole: thank you, mr. speaker. i certainly thank the gentleman for yielding and those extremely kind and gracious words. i certainly rise in support of this very important bill. i want to offer and echo the praise that's been offered on this floor by members of both parties to our chairman who is bringing his last full appropriations bill to the floor as the full committee chairman and just tell him what a pleasure it's been to work under his leadership and to learn, frankly, at his knee. usually with a pretty good cigar at the same time. so i've enjoyed that. i think he's done a great job. i also want to congratulate my friend, the ranking member. this is a chairman and ranking member, frarningly, that have

done their jobs the -- frankly, that have done their jobs the last two years. all bills were reported out of the appropriations committee both years and all 12 should have been on this floor and dealt with. and i regret that they were not. there are a lot of good things in this continuing resolution. as been mentioned earlier, the additional funds for biomedical research, the funds for our defense at a critical time of our country and disaster relief funds that parts of our country share. i know in is not the bill that chairman rogers wanted to bring to this floor. and frankly we've got to get out of this. i couldn't agree more with my friend from indiana who said it pretty well, and this is not this committee's fault this is a failure in this congress. this is the responsibility of this congress and this administration to write the bill for next year. this is a failure to meet that responsibility. it's a necessary step. i certainly will support it, but we've simply got to get back to the point of regular order. you know, next year, believe

me, i will push very hard to make sure we don't have another c.r. on april 28, that we actually do the appropriations for f.y. 2017. shouldn't be doing it in f.y. 2017, but it would be better than another c.r., and we'll push to make sure we do the f.y. 2018. i know the chairman has done everything humanly possible to do that, and i know he's had a willing partner in the ranking member. let's pass this bill but let's get back to regular order. let's restore things. there's a bipartisan sense of frustration on the appropriations committee and frankly the leadership on both sides in this body need to work to achieve that. it's not the appropriations committee's failure. this is a failure of the house of representatives and the senate to do its job. that should not happen again. with that i urge support for the measure and yield back the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from kentucky reserves. the gentlewoman from new york is recognized. mrs. lowey: mr. speaker, i rise to enter into a colloquy with

chairman rogers. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized. mrs. lowey: mr. chairman, section 170-b of the continuing resolution creates a contingency fund which could make available an additional $200 million after march 1. can you clarify if the additional funds in section 170-b will be available for obligation for three fiscal years, the same period of time as fiscal year 2017 funds appropriated to carry out the same purpose? mr. rogers: will the gentlelady yield? rs. lowey: i'm happy to yield. mr. rogers: the answer is yes. mrs. lowey: thank you, mr. chairman. i yield. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady reserves. the gentleman from kentucky. mr. rogers: mr. speaker, i yield three minutes to the gentleman from west virginia, mr. mckinley. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from west virginia is recognized for three minutes. mr. kinzinger: for the purpose of a -- mr. mckinley: for the purpose

of a colloquy. thank you, mr. chairman, for discussing this short-term health care provision for coal miners that's in the c.r. a few months ago, approximately 20,000 retired coal miners and their families received notices that they would lose their health benefits at the end of this year. not for anything they did but because of president obama's war on coal and the excessive regulationes that have forced their former employees into bankruptcy. -- former employers into bankruptcy. remember, these men and women did nothing to cause these problems. this will give these families little relief. it's for only four months. not any longer. after this bill passes, in just a few short weeks, they will be back in the same position. they'll get the same notice. i'm deeply disturbed that this bill does not include a long-term solution. some in the senate are even willing to kill this bill, but

in so doing, they would be abandoning the 20,000 coal miners. we can't do that. . we have to accept on what we have. we can't turn our backs on these families. stopping this c.r. would put people in harm's way. so i'm supporting its passage and asking that they work with me when we return next congress to find a long-term solution. our coal miners deserve the peace of minds to know their benefits will not be threatened in the future and willing to work with the leadership and anyone else in congress to get that done. so, mr. chairman, i have enjoyed working with you as the chairman for the last six years. so my question to you, is it your understanding we will have the opportunity to pursue a long-term solution and fund the

health care benefits of retired coal miners in the first months of the 115th congress and before the c.r. expires? mr. rogers: would the gentleman yield? mr. kinzinger: yes. mr. rogers: yes. that's my understanding. there are thousands of retired miners who will be impacted by the expiration of these health care benefits, many of them in my district. these miners have worked hard their entire lives to earn these benefits and deserve to know while the promises made to them will be honored. i'm committed to working with you and other members representing coal country to arrive at a lasting solution to this problem in the new congress and to provide some lasting relief that our coal fields have suffered so much in the last eight years.

mr. mckinley: thank you. reclaiming my time and i look forward to working with you. you have been very honorable and someone that i have truly enjoyed working with. and as we proceed on this in the next year and i think we can be successful. and with the incoming chairman, i'm even more excited. this is a way to come to a solution. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman from new york. mrs. lowey: mr. speaker, i ask for the time remaining. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman has 22 minutes remaining. mrs. lowey: mr. speaker, i'm pleased to yield two minutes to the gentlelady from ohio, ms. kaptur, the ranking member of the energy and water subcommittee on appropriations. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized for two minutes. ms. kaptur: i thank the gentlelady for yielding and compliment her on her work and

the chairman, mr. rogers, incredible chairman. both of them did their work. but i rise today as the underlying bill that all of this is attached to our energy and water bill appalled that this christmas tree bill that the republican leadership hoisted on this congress in the last minute. this is exactly the type of bill the public hates. the top brass over there literally disrespected our committee work and produced instead a rotten egg. today, we will take a vote that forces us to choose between shutting the government down two weeks before christmas or supporting this funding bill laced with nongermane controversial provisions. what kind of choice is this? what happened to the republicans' top priority of funding the government under regular order? not our committee's fault. we did our job. what happened to voting on 12 appropriation bills and allowing

amendments under regular order? we want to do that, but we are being handcuffed. i'll tell you what happened, the republican leaders threw out our up-to-date bills and threw them in the trash and replaced them with yet another bill that looks in the rear view mirror with numbers that are two years old and doesn't meet america's defense late and the department to operate without any predictability or stability. this is disgraceful. no wonder americans are so mad at us. if republicans wanted to take care of the military, they have failed. the military has never ever operated during a continuing resolution until now. imagine how the commanders in the field feel when the april deadline hits. if republicans wanted to take care of american workers, they have failed.

this resolution abandons hardworking coal miners. right at christmas time. may i ask for an additional minute perhaps? i thank the gentlelady. if republicans wanted to run the house under regular order, they have failed. they only brought up half of the 27 bills to the floor for a vote. where are the other six. if republicans wanted to fund the government in a responsible and efficient way, they have failed. this resolution will likely cost us millions more dollars in delayed projects, contract reaches and lost american jobs. is this a sign of what's to come? what happens on april 28 when this filthy band-aid falls off? if we want bills under regular order this year when we had a bipartisan agreement and republican majority, what will we do in may when we have the

2017 budget to fix and the 2018 budget and the debt ceiling to fix. i wonder what chaotic pakistan the republican leaders will lead us down in the new year. this is certainly a terrible sign of what's to come. i yield back my remaining time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlelady yields back. the gentlelady from new york reserves. the messenger: a message from the president of the united states. the secretary: mr. speaker, i'm directed by the president of the united states to deliver to the house of representatives a message in writing. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from kentucky is recognized. mr. rogers: i now yield three minutes to the outstanding chairman of the house energy and commerce committee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from michigan is recognized. mr. upton: thank you, mr. speaker. and first i must join the long line of folks congratulating our friend and chairman of the

important appropriations committee, mr. rogers from kentucky, for great service, assembling a hardworking staff and making sure at christmas time now we aren't going to be shutting down the government. i rise in support of this c.r., continuing resolution and i just want to inform a couple of my colleagues of some of the very important provisions that are included in this package to fund some of the work in 21st century cures and relief for families in flint, michigan and elsewhere around the country. there is not a single person in this chamber who has not been touched by disease in some way. we have said all too many good-byes to the people we hold dear, every day countless folks living vibrant lives are delivered unexpected diagnosis. it is a cycle that repeats

itself over and over. life can change in an instant and hope seems sometimes out of each whether alzheimer's m.s., cancer, diabetes. both the house and the senate overwhelmingly passed the 21st century cures act with 392 votes here in the house and 94 in the senate just yesterday. it is set to be signed into law next week and our effort will help change the conversation on innovation and research. but you know what? it's patients that are going to be helped the most. and this bill fulfills our commitment to hit the ground running immediately in an effort to to deliver valuable funds in this fiscal year, something that was critical as we worked together in both sides of the aisle and the house and the senate to get it done. the bill fulfills our commitment to the folks of flint, michigan,

again an issue we have dealt with and i commend mr. kildee who is on the floor working with him in a bipartisan way. the system failed at every level of government, but that's not what the folks in flint wanted to hear. they wanted answers. this bill finally delivers that. and it's been a long struggle and i commend the gentleman from michigan for his leadership on this. we worked together. this bill provides the effort to right those past wrongs. they want answers and results, and this bill delivers exactly that and i would urge my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to pass this bill and send it to the senate and then to the president. with that, mr. speaker, i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from kentucky reserves. the gentlewoman from new york. mrs. lowey: mr. speaker, i yield two minutes to the gentleman from new york, mr. serrano, the ranking member of the financial services and general government appropriations subcommittee. the speaker pro tempore: the

gentleman from new york is recognized for two minutes. mr. serrano: i thank the gentlewoman. i rise to join my voice to those from new york and other places who continue to ask why not new york city, reimbursing new york city for the work and money they are spending to take care of the president-elect? we don't have a problem with safeguarding him, but someone should pay other than the local government. and i must remind you or warn you that he loves new york and that's fine and i suspect this will be a president who will spend a lot of time in new york city rather than in the white house. that might sell well on some tv networks but won't sell well for the taxpayers of new york. so i think it's important for us now to be able to give new york

the $35 million it has already paid. now the $7 million in the bill and some will say, i can't vote for this because you only have $7 million and i'm looking at chairman rogers and chairman frelinghuysen and i suspect this is a downpayment on what's to come and negotiations will get better. as i close, let me say, hal, you have been a great chairman. every time i get up and you look to your right, which is not difficult for you to do, but when you look to your right and single me out to speak, i always felt i'm part of a team. and you're not leaving the congress, but leaving the chair manship and miss you in that position but replaced by a friend who will have to sit loser to him on the train.

i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentlewoman from new york reserves. the gentleman from kentucky. mr. rogers: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from arkansas, a member of the armed services subcommittee on appropriation, mr. womack. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. womack: i thank the gentleman from kentucky for giving me a couple of minutes here to speak on behalf of this bill. i'm not real sure, mr. speaker, how much more constructive i could be on this discussion on this underlying bill. the truth has already been spoken by both sides. it's not the bill we wanted to bring to the floor. it's not the bills that we have marked up after some very serious oversight meetings and discussions within the appropriations committee and has already been mentioned, we moved each of the 12 bills through committee. only half of them made it

through the floor of the house. so it's not the final product that any of us on the appropriations committee and i would guess most of the people in our congress would have wanted to bring. but it is the bill that is on the floor today and it's quite essential that we pass it and leave for the holidays without turning washington upside down or our economy upside down. so i support the underlying bill and i would recommend that it get a thunderous amount of approval here within the conference. i can't helpclose, but remember back six years ago, mr. speaker, when i came to this congress and during the orientation period, i had the opportunity to engage in conversation with my friend from kentucky, hal rogers. i told him then i wanted to be on his committee.

i knew he was committed to regular order and i knew he understood the process and i had the desire to serve on a committee that was actually going to do something that washington is not real familiar with and that is cut spending. he has done that. i said i would be willing to take the tough votes and standing with him and rest of the colleagues on the committee to restore regular order and really the article one powers that the congress should enjoy. he has never failed me nor has he failed our committee and our congress, our house should be -- appreciate what this gentleman has done with this regard. so i thank the gentleman from kentucky for the leadership he has given our committee and i thank him for the time here to express my feelings publicly on the floor of the house. and i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back the balance of his time. the gentleman from kentucky reserves. the gentlewoman from new york. mrs. lowey: mr. speaker, i am

delighted to yield three minutes to the gentleman from north carolina, mr. price, the ranking member on the transportation and housing appropriations subcommittee. . the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for three minutes. mr. price: i thank the gentlewoman and i second the words about our committee chair with whom i've been pleased to work. i'm pleased that this continuing resolution makes sure that north carolina and other states have the ability to rebuild after hurricane matthew and other major storm this is year. securing the funding has been my top priority since hurricane matthew made landfall. i'm grateful for the bipartisan

cooperation of the congressional delegation from our state and also the appropriations committee leadership throughout this entire process. the bill before us also includes critical funding to address the flint water crisis, our national opioid epidemic, and vice president biden's moon shot to cantser initiative. so -- to cancer initiative. so it's heartening to see these bear fruit, but this resolution stands in stark contrast to how the republican leadership of this house has managed the appropriations end game this year. rather than work in a productive way with democrats to finalize our fiscal 2017 appropriations bills, republican leaders of the house have again decided this time in ecided, this conniveance with the trump transition, to abandon the bills we negotiabilitied in good faith to have yet another stopgap

measure this one lasting an arbitrary five months this doesn't bode well for the appropriations process. we've heard the alarm bells sounded by appropriations leaders from both sides of the aisle. make no mistake, there are some immediate consequences as well this c.r. will damage h.u.d. programs that serve our most vulnerable populations. it will also prevent states from receiving new highway and transit funding called for in the bipartisan fast act. the c.r. also contains a partisan anti-safety provision that would block overnight rest requirements for commercial truck drivers, endangering highway travel for millions of drivers across the country. perhaps most egregious as well as unprecedented is the inclusion of a waiver for president-elect trump's nominee for secretary of defense. now whatever the merits of this nomination, setting aside the

seven-year waiting period designed to protect civilian control of the military deserves more deliberation and debate than a c.r. provides. mr. speaker, as we enter this period of political uncertainty, i hope that we can commit in future fiscal years to an appropriations process that allows us to exercise the pow over the purse this body's essential constitutional power, in a measured and bipartisan way. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman's time has expired. the gentlewoman from new york reserves. the gentleman from kentucky. mr. rogers: i yield two minutes to the gentleman from idaho, who chair the all-important energy and water subcommittee on our committee, mr. simpson. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. simpson: thank you for the time. let me thank you for the job you've done over the last six years leading this committee. it's a difficult job, we have to make tough choices than committee has been willing to do

this. i appreciate the leadership that you and ranking member lowey have provided for this committee and the direction we've been able to go. but let me say also, mr. speaker, i don't really like what we're doing here. i don't think anybody on the appropriations committee likes what we're doing here. we all know it's necessary because we don't want the government to shut down. to it's amazing to listen all the people who come to the floor, i know all the appropriations committee members want to get back to regular order. the last time that was done was back in 1994. under republican and democrat leadership we have not been able to do it in the last 22 years. it's time we do. but it's amazing the number of people that come to the floor that aren't on the appropriation committees that say, man, we need to get back to regular order. and we all agree with that. so how do we do it. i'll tell you how we do it.

it takes a commitment. it takes a commitment of republican and democratic leadership. if you're going to have open rules where any amendment can be offered and a lot of these appropriations bills come to the floor, we have 100 or 150 amendments offered, they take a lot of time to pass. that's ok. we've got to have a commitment that we're going to spend time on the floor to do these appropriation bills. and we're willing to do that. but it takes a commitment from leadership that we're going to have the floor time. we used to have a time where all during the month of june, first of july, it was appropriation season. we were here six weeks in a row, five days a week, sometimes late at night and early in the morning, doing appropriations bills. e have a different schedule, because district work period is important for a lot of members, so every third week we go home to our districts. that time is important, but we're elected to do a job. we've got to be in washington and we've got to be on the floor

and we've got to be debating these bills if we want to get back to regular order. we act as if it comes down from on high that this can't happen, like it's not in our control. it is in our control. and we on both sides of the aisle need to make a commitment that we'll get back to regular order and do appropriations bills. i thank the chairman for all the job and all the effort he and ranking member lowey have done to bring us back to regular order to the extent that we can and hopefully we get back to it. i yield back my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back, the gentleman from kentucky reserves, the gentlewoman from new york. mrs. lowey: i'm delighted to yield three minutes to the gentleman from california, mr. farr, the ranking member of the subcommittee on agriculture appropriation. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. farr: thank you, mr. speaker, thank you, madam chair, for yielding. this is the last time i'll speak on this floor after 23 years of serving in the house of

representatives. and it's sweet because it is about the appropriations process. and the wonderful camaraderie that that committee, which i think is the most important committee and most exciting committee in congress because you dealt with all aspects of how tovet -- of how government operates. you really do the policy wonk, the technical stuff, the drilling down -- drilling down, all those words we use to understand how government works and how much it's going to cost. you've heard this incredible bipartisanship of people dedicated to the job they were elected to do and the committee they serve on. do the appropriations process. all of that is develop -- has developed this incredible friendship and i think respect, professional respect that we have for one another regardless of our philosophy. the bitterness of it is that you've just heard everyone so eloquently speak about the failure of the process. that we're doing a c.r. that nobody wants to do.

why is that? frankly, they're not saying it, i think this is the first test of how the congress is going to respond to the new president-elect trump's agenda. it was our former member, now vice president-elect mike pence, that said, we want a c.r. he served in this house. he knows the process. we don't want -- we were all in agreement. we were going to do a comprehensive bill. we've caved to this request. and we shouldn't. because this is the only place you do checks and balances. the abuses of the administration can be only checked and balanced in, mostly in this che. -- in this committee. it's going to be a tough year next year. it's going to be a tough year, some of the proposals being made are really radical, they're going to cut a lot of things and hurt a lot of people if this congress doesn't correct them,

and we have a sense of how to do that, but we can't do it with a c.r. so i leave here, you know, really appreciative of the incredible responsibility that my electorate has given me to be here, the privilege of being in the house of representatives, i really love the opportunity to be on the appropriations committee, i respect the leadership of the chair and ranking member, being able to produce some remarkable appropriations bills. but i just ask my colleagues, take back your power. be what the electorate wants. be what the constitution asks us to do. be that serious minded representational government that really drills down on how all of government is going to operate. don't cave in to c.r.'s. thank you very much. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. mr. rogers: will the gentleman yield?

the gentleman and i don't agree on many issues but i think all of us agree he's been an outstanding member of the congress, he's been a work horse on our committee, and we're going to miss you. so congratulations to you on a great career. thank you for serving. the speaker pro tempore: thank you -- mr. farr: thank you, mr. chairman, i appreciate those kind remarks. i yield back. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman yields back. the gentleman from new york reserve -- the gentlewoman from new york reserves. the gentleman from kentucky. the gentleman from kentucky reserves. the gentlewoman from new york. mrs. lowey: mr. speaker, i'm delighted to yield two minutes to the gentlelady from minnesota, ms. mccollum, ranking member of the interior and

environment appropriations subcommittee. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized for two minutes. ms. mccollum: thank you. mr. speaker, once again this congress has abandoned its responsibility to provide a full-year appropriation. months of hard work were thrown away. pushing important funding decisions down the road. i've heard from families and business leaders in my district, they're worried about the uncertainty that continuing resolutions create in their daily lives. it's not a good way to govern. it's not a good way forward for our country. as the ranking member of interior and environment subcommittee, i am disappointed that this bill only provides five months of funding for priorities like clean air, clean water, national parks, and our treaty obligations. we need to secure funding for hospitals and for schools in indian country and it should be for a full year. we need to manage our national forests and parks and the environmental protections