mr. dicks: would the gentleman yield? mr. simpson: i have no problems with the way that you are approaching this and i thank you for your bipartisanship in working with us. mr. dicks: i commend the gentleman for his work, his staff's work. everyone's worked together. i want to say again. your attendance on your side of the aisle. we have four cardinals on our subcommittee, so they have subcommittees they are running. it's difficult for everyone to be there. but your side has been there and it has been terrific and the questions have been great and it has been a real pleasure. and i thank mr. obey, the chairman of the full committee, for this allocation. i mean, we can only go as far as our allocation. and i think mr. obey realized that we had been hurt over the last eight years -- not to end this on a sour note -- and that -- it was a catchup budget. we're getting back to partial way there. but these are such important programs. our national parks, our national forests, our fish and wildlife service and the programs for the t

mr. dicks: would the gentleman yield? i would like to thank you for bringing this issue to light and i would be happy to work with you to improve the standards of these cemeteries. i agree we must improve these cemeteries to ensure that our appreciation for our veterans' sacrifices is appropriately expressed by maintaining their final resting place to the highest standards. the national park service is taking steps towards better maintenance of the cemeteries. the national office of the park service is assembling a team with expertise in cultural resource preservation and maintainance. this team will conduct a review of these two active cemeteries and make recommendations to the national office regarding approprie corrective actions where deficiencies are found. i will follow this effort -- follow up this effort to ensure that the servis provide a level of care befitting a national shrine. i look forward to work with you to address this issue. >> i thank the gentleman from indiana for bringing this to our attention, the i

mr. dicks: would the gentleman yield? i just wanted to say to the gentleman that the committee strongly supports his amendment. we think this is a good amendment. it's well thought out. we like the fact that the city and the state have put up money. it's a real partnership. this is the way we do things today. and the gentleman is a distinguished member of the committee and we are proud of his good work. . mr. adler: it has a rich history of doing that, it was one time the number-one sub producer in the world and also the birth place of the country music legends alabama. when new york city suffer the terrorism attack of 2001, the industry in fort payne donated and delivered hundreds of payers of socks to the rescue workers for -- payers of socks to rescue workers. the restoration and the use of the building will be a significant cultural and educational benefit to northeastern alabama. while i represent the gentleman who has offered the amendment, i would ask the members to vote no on this amendment and i would like to sho

mr. dicks: i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from nevada is recognized. mr. heller: i yield a minute to my colleague from idaho. mr. simpson: i thank the gentleman for yielding. this doesn't cut off funding for the fire center. what it does is cut off funding for the fire center in that location. it doesn't matter what the environmental review is done or not. if that location is not acceptable to the local residents. one of the things in dealing with federal agencies that own a majority of the land surrounding you is that sometimes they are good neighbors and sometimes they aren't, but local people ought to have some say in these federal agencies' decisions of whether they are going to locate facilities and so forth. just saying this area, this location that you're looking at is inappropriate as the board of county commissioners has said, seems appropriate and congress ought to look at their wishes and i guarantee you in nevada, there are a lot of places th

mr. dicks: this is in the forest service? mr. hastings: that is correct. mr. dicks: this is the first i have known of this. my colleague from washington state, i understand your long and very principled position on this issue. i would be delighted to take a look at this and report back to the gentleman on what i found out and see what the situation is with the forest service. mr. hastings: reclaiming my time. i appreciate that. again, the basis of that is as i have heard from my local county commissioners, smaller rural counties and they're concerned about the loss of revenue, rightfully so. i want to make sure that on anything like this, they are at least made whole. and i appreciate the gentleman taking a look on that and i would yield if he has more to say on that. mr. dicks: i appreciate the gentleman bringing this to our attention and we look forward to working together as we have on many projects throughout the years. mr. hastings: i thank the gentleman for taking that and for his work. i look forward to work with him. and i yield back. the speaker pro t

mr. dicks: mr. chairman, i yield myself such time as i may consume and i reserve the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman's time is reserved. mr. dicks: it is my privilege and pleasure to present the interior, environment and related agencies appropriations bill to you today. this very fine bill is the product of many hours of hearings and briefings, always with bipartisan input and excellent participation. i'm particularly pleased to present the bill with my friend, mike simpson. the bill before us provides historic increases for the environment, natural resources and native american programs, especially indian health. it also includes significant allocations to protect our public lands, invest in science and support important cultral agencies. at a time and a total of $3 billion, this bill is an increase of 17% above last year. chairman obey recognizes that the programs funded through this bill have been chronically underfunded and provided the allocation necessary to reverse that trend. f

amendment number 1 printed in part a by mr. dicks of washington. amendment number 3 printed in part b by mr. heller of nevada. amendment number 4 printed in part b by mr. jordan of ohio. amendment number 6 printed in part b by mr. stearns of florida. amendment number 1 printed in part c by mr. campbell of california. amendment number 3 printed in part d by mr. campbell of california. amendment number 3 printed part c by mr. campbell of florida. amendment number 1 printed in part e by mr. campbell of california. and amendment number 4 printed in part c by mr. campbell of florida. the chair will reduce to two minutes the time for any electronic vote after the first vote in this series. for what purpose does the gentleman from idaho rise? mr. simpson: is the clerk going to designate the amendment that's before us? the chair: the unfinished business is the request for recorded vote on amendment number 1 printed in part a of the house report 111-184 offered by the gentleman from washington, mr. dicks, on which further proceedings were postponed and on w

mr. dicks: this amendment -- you put it on your website. it was taken and we looked at it very carefully and reviewed by e.p.a. and we feel that this is a totally justified amendment. and we strongly support it. mr. visclosky: i appreciate the gentleman's remarks and i reserve the balance of my time. mr. dicks: the park service strongly supports it. the chair: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from california is recognized. mr. campbell: i appreciate the gentleman's point and i appreciate the gentleman's passion for the project. but as i mentioned before, that is not the point. the point i believe is that there are 434 others of us who have parks that we may believe are greater in need than this or are just in need as this and is this the way that we should allocate scarce resources around the various national parks that we have in the country? and i think it's not. and with that, i yield back. the chair: the gentleman yields the balance of his time. the gentleman from indiana is recognized. mr. visclosky: i make

dicks. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman from washington is recognized. mr. dicks: we appreciate you yielding time. and i just want to say to my colleagues that i believe this is an extraordinarily good bill. mr. simpson and i worked together on a bipartisan basis to craft this legislation. our staffs worked together very effectively. and we had an open process, an open subcommittee markup where any member could have offered any amendment that they wanted. we had a full committee markup where any member of the appropriations committee could have offered an amendment, either side of the aisle. and many were offered. and i just want you to know that i understand mr. simpson's statement here. he feels badly that we don't have an open rule. i would have preferred an open rule. but, when we took control of the house, all of a sudden, we had an extension of time on these bills. and i can remember the last year i was the ranking member, mr. taylor was the chairman. i think we went about eight hours. the next year when i became chairman, it was over 20 hours. it was

mr. dicks: mr. speaker, today in seattle a memorial service is taking place for the university of washington's legendary football coach, jim owens, who passed away on june 6 leaving a legacy that extends far beyond husky stadium where he coached for 18 years. in fact, that legacy extends here to the nation's capital because i was one of the many individuals he recruited, coached, and counseled on and off the field and we remained friends for nearly 50 years. he was a remarkable leader. assuming job of head coach at the university at the age of 29. it was said he brought a work ethic and coaching style that would have intimidate add marine corps drill instructor. that was accurate. i can say that from personal experience. he had high expectations and he could be tough. he once told me i was fine on defense as a linebacker, but i was the weakest weak guard on the team. but most of all he was a real leader. and he was successful. three years after arriving at the university he produced a rose bowl cham

and mr. dicks asked that you be here. mr. james gollac, mr. doyle, you want to say a few words. >> thanks, mr. chairman. it's a pleasure to welcome my friend at today's hearing. jim and his family have been at the same location in pittsburgh since 1935. a business that's still owned and operated by his family. they started with a hudson franchise and then they sold cars from amc, jeep, and later eagle. several mergers later, they were a successful jeep dealer until 1999 in 2000 they acquired the chrysler franchise and now they are a chrysler jeep dealer and have sold over 10,000 new and used vehicles over the last few decades. they have consistently held the highest customer satisfaction rating for sales and service in the state of pennsylvania. and i welcome you, jim. >> next is mr. duane paddic of new york thanks for being here. last but not least, is mr. frank blankenbeckler iii of waxahachie, texas. frank is here with his son, austin and thank you for coming. joe, do you want to say anything about your witness? >> is it time to introduce t

but for mr. ayers, the bomb that went off in the town house, that was intended for for dicks, it was un mail bomb meant to go off at a dance at fort dix. why not come clean about it to dlly? leat did you have to do with that bomb? y wthe book discusses that's length. the fact is that the people who hatw the whistle on what they were up to in the town house was a loss and it was something we peod very hard to work away from. that was a terrible, terrible decision by the people who were there. fortunately it didn't actually become what it might have become. unfortunately it did kill 3 of our dear friends and comrades. we did write about it and come ome.n about it. i am hesitant to ask you to buy the book, get it at the public library. i won't get a nickel. >> host: do you stay in touch with kathy wilkerson or any of the others? >> of course. one of the interesting things to me, i want to refer back to the comment from the woman who praise us for sticking with our values. most of the people from the

a senator: mr. president? the presiding officer: the senator from texas. mr. cornyn: mr. president, i rise to speak once again on the nomination of harold koh, who the president has nominated to be legal advisor for the state department. just to put this in context, as the senator from massachusetts has addressed, the legal advisor is a very important job at the state department. he is responsible for providing guidance on important legal questions, including treaty interpretation and other international obligations of the united states. he gives the secretary of state legal advice during negotiations with other nations. and so it is the legal advisor can be a very influential voice in diplomatic circles, especially if he or she has particularly strong views on america's obligations to other nations in multilateral organizations. based on my review of dean koh's record, i don't believe he's the right man for this job. his views are intentioned with what i believe are core democratic values in that he would subjugate american sovereignty to the opinions, the so-called inte

well, mr. president, in the era of the gm takeover, as we know, washington controls the purse strings, pays the bills, dick taits the rules. the same would be true of a washington health care co-op. as leavitt put it, washington health care would result in americans be co-opt rather than being given a co-op. americans are concerned about the cost of the bills being imposed on the other side. an estimate shows that the bill in the "help" committee -- health, education, labor, and pensions -- or the draft bill crate creteed by the senior senators from massachusetts and connecticut -- that's the piece of legislation we're talking about -- would cost $1 trillion over the course of 10 years. but only would reduce the number of uninsured by 16 million people. so $1 trillion would bring 16 million people into the insured status. for those that would be newly covered, the cost would be $65,185 per person. for ten years of coverage. that's only a preliminary estimate for part of the plan. of course, a p

so anyway, dick cheney and i were out flyfishing. [laughter] >> and he kind of taken aback by this and i said you were so great, mr. vice president. we run for president one day? let's bring up right now richard russo. he has written a wonderful book that old cape magic. and i would just turn it over to him. he has some great dick cheney stores as well. [laughter] [applause] >> thank you. not having a morning show of my own i had to write mine down. i hope you don't mind. that old cape magic, my new novel, was supposed to be a short story. otherwise, i wouldn't have even begun it. my previous novel, bridge of sighs, had left me drained. the needle on my creative gas tank bouncing off the empty. somehow i had to know you could write a book about despair without feeling just a little bit of that particular emotion yourself. i had imagined that lucy lynch, my protagonist was a haunted one. he, not i., would have to make his solitary journey halfway across his own personal bridge. nothing but darkness and loss awaiting him on the other s

. >> caller: good morning c-span and mr. will. a first of all abc in the white house, there will be no money that will come out -- c-span news to talk about dick durbin and can i disagree with you on iran and north korea. i believe iran is more dangerous than north korea. north korea banks from the food and get it all from china iran, they fun hezbollah and libya, they fund hamas. there are finding al qaeda in iraq so myself i think they are a lot more dangerous. >> guest: the caller may be right, they may be more dangerous and he certainly right that they are dangerous. >> host: this is martha in rockland, maine on democrats line. >> caller: hello? this is martha clarke in that rock landed and out like to ask mr. well, why you included insurance companies in the health equation at all. they bring nothing to the table are in the business to make money and to prevent health care. thank you. >> guest: that seems to me is an eccentric view of the current function of history of insurance companies and our country. i don't know quite h

mr. dicks: i want to thank mr. campbell for being so cooperative, but i think we ought to move ahead here and get to final passage. but, again, thank you all for supporting, and i hope you all will support this bill. i yield back the balance of my time. the chair: the gentleman yields. the clerk will now read. the clerk: page 119, line 23, this act may be cited as the department of interior, environment and related agencies appropriations act, 2010. the chair: under the rule the committee now rises. the speaker pro tempore: mr. chairman. the chair: madam speaker, the committee of the whole house on the state of the union has had under consideration h.r. 2996 and pursuant to house resolution 578 reports the bill -- amendmented in the committee of the whole. the speaker pro tempore: the chairman of the committee of the whole house on the state of the union reports that the committee has had under consideration the bill h.r. 2996 and pursuant to house resolution 578 reports the bill back to the house with sundry amend