mr. holt: request the yeas and nays. the chair: pursuant to clause 6 of rule 18, further proceedings on the amendment offered by the gentleman from new jersey will be postponed. it is now in order to consider amendment number 39 printed in house report 111-182. for what purpose does the gentlewoman from new york rise? mrs. maloney: mr. chair, i have an amendment at the desk, number 39. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 39 printed in house report 111-182 offered by mrs. maloney of new york. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 572, the gentlewoman from new york, mrs. maloney, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentlewoman from new york. mrs. maloney: thank you, mr. chairman. this amendment would provide guidance and oversight to the federal voter assistance programs, efforts to increase ballot access for military and overseas voters. i would like to thank the distinguished chairman skelton for his support of this amendment. the vot

holt: mr. speaker, i thank the gentleman from florida, and i am pleased this morning to speak about technology assessment as a tool for our legislative work. this bill funds the tools that allows us to do our best on behalf of the 300 million americans. every issue that comes before us, virtually every issue has some aspects of science and technology. yet this congress has not brought great credit to ourselves for our ability to deal with science and technology issues or to recognize emerging trends or the implications of technology. fortunately we do not have to reinvent a tool to help us. we created the office of technology assessment, a congressional support agency with a professional taff staff. it provides -- professional staff. it was balanced and had an impartial presentation, for their framing and their forward-looking perspective. the o.t.a., as it was known, functioned well for 25 years. it produced reports on such topics as retiring old cars, programs to save gasoline and reduce emis

mr. holt: mr. chairman, i have an amendment at the desk. the chair: the clerk will designate the amendment. the clerk: amendment number 11 printed in part c of house report 111-143 offered by mr. holt of new jersey. the chair: pursuant to house resolution 522, the gentleman from new jersey, mr. holt, and a member opposed, each will control five minutes. the chair recognizes the gentleman from new jersey. mr. holt: thank you, mr. chairman. i thank chairman berman for bringing this bill to the floor. simply stated, my amendment would remember the secretary of state to report to congress within 60 days on potential changes in treaty language and related u.s. laws that would improve other countries' compliance with the hague convention on international child abduction. let me briefly explain why this amendment is necessary. since 1980 the hague convention on the civil aspects of international child abduction was created to ensure in a child is wrongfully removed from his or her country of habitual residence from one parent by another parent, th

holt, for purposes of a colloquy. the chair: the gentleman is recognized for one minute. mr. holt: i appreciate the hard work of chairman berman and the committee on this bill, i'd like to enter into a colloquy on the issue of science and diplomacy. i'm pleased to support h.r. 2410. it's a strong bill that accomplishes many good things. there's one area the bill does not address explicitly, the role science can play in our diplomatic portfolio. in his cre cent -- recent speech in cairo, the president reminded us the ideas that shape our world have sprung from every corner of the earth. distinct cultures can communicate, cooperate, and work together. science can advance our diplomatic goals and diplomacy can advance science for the public good. i'm aware the chairman is working on this. i yield to the chairman. mr. berman: i thank the gentleman for yielding and i thank him for his suggestion. i agree completely that science constitutes an untapped -- an undertapped resource in america's diplomatic toolbox and i can assure the gentleman i'm committed to enhancing our capacity i

mr. scott: thank you, mr. speaker, thank you to the gentleman from new jersey, mr. holt. we strongly support the amendment that would require the secretary of state to make recommendations to congress on the kinds of change needed to the hague convention on the civil aspects of international child abduction and where applicable to united states law. mr. speaker, the purpose of the hague convention is to ensure that in situations where a child was wrongfully removed from his or her country or habitual residence by one parent against the will of another parent, the agreed -- the aggrieved parent has an internationally recognized means of recovering his or her abducted child. unfortunately, many american families have come face to face with the very real limitations of the current hague conventions and their efforts to recover parentally kidnapped children taken to other countries. such as we case of the high profile case involving mr. david goldman of new jersey whose son sean was kidnapped by his wife in 2004. this case is largely -- has largely languished in brazil's cour

holt of new jersey. the chair: a recorded vote has been requested. those in support of the request for a recorded vote will rise and be counted. a sufficient number having arisen, a recorded vote is ordered. members will record their votes by electronic device. this is a two-minute vote. [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc., in cooperation with the united states house of representatives. any use of the closed-captioned coverage of the house proceedings for political or commercial purposes is expressly prohibited by the u.s. house of representatives.] are 224 the chair: on this vote the yeas are 224, the nays are 193, the amendment is adopted. the unfinished business is the request for a recorded vote on amendment number 20 printed in part b of house report 111-182 by the gentleman from virginia, mr. connelly, on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the ayes prevailed in voice vote. the clerk will depace in -- redesignate the amendment. the clerk: offered by mr. connelly of virginia. the chair: a record

holt. the chair: the gentleman from new jersey is recognized for one minute. mr. holt: mr. chairman, i thank the distinguished chairman of the committee. i have an amendment as part of this en bloc that would require the secretary of defense to ensure that members of the individual ready reserve who have served at least one tour in either iraq or afghanistan receive a counseling call from properly trained personnel not less than once every 90 days to look at emotional, psychological, medical and career needs. mr. chairman, the military personnel from the secretary on down and certainly the chairman of our committee have devoted a great deal of attention to suicide prevention, preck anything and treatment. it's important because the i.r.r. is one place where it's too easy to fall through the cracks. one of east brunswick, new jersey, enlisted in the army in 2001, attended fort bening with the 173rd airborne. he served in iraq. afterwards he sought treatment for posttraumatic stress disorder. maybe the v.a. diagnosis should have been accepted by the army. in any case after he

mr. holt: madam speaker, i thank the chair. energy, climate and environment are principal subjects that i have spoke on and worked on for decades before i came to congress and since. the principal reason is why my constituents sent me to congress. i admire the skill and his efforts to reduce the release of greenhouse gases. but i'm concerned the bill does not include the research funds necessary to reach the target of 80% emission reductions set in the bill. we must transform the way we produce and use energy. we cannot meet this goal with today's technology. and this bill, as written, will not provide the billions of dollars needed to find and develop the future technology. i'm here to ask the chairman of the committee that he will work with me to increase the amount of research and development funding in this bill and other legislation that we need in order to reduce our reliance on foreign oils and slow the rate of growth of climate change. mr. waxman: i thank the gentleman for his comments. there is much in this bill to pro

amendment number 34 by mr. holt of new jersey. amendment number 20 by mr. connolly of virginia. the chair will reduce to two minutes the time for any electronic vote after the first vote in this series. plan for the beginning, middle, and end of u.s. military operations in afghanistan. for over eight long years, our uniformed men and women have done all that we have asked them to do in afghanistan. we are now asking them to do more. of and we are giving them more resources and more boots on the ground to accomplish their mission. what we have not told them is how to tell when their contribution to the political solution is done. and they can begin to transition outs of afghanistan. mr. chairman, i want president obama to succeed in afghanistan. i stand by our commitment to provide the necessary resources to help the afghan people take charge of their own future. as congress authorizes and appropriates billions and billions of dollars for a new strategy in afghanistan, is it too much to ask how we will know when our troops can finally come home to their families? certainly we nee

holt of new jersey, mr. schiff of california, ms. schwartz of pennsylvania, mr. payne of new jersey, mr. pomeroy of north dakota, mr. farr of california, mr. ellison of minnesota, ms. hirono of hawaii, and ms. roibled of -- and ms. roybal-allard of california. the speaker pro tempore: the chair lays before the house a communication. the clerk: the honorable the speaker, house of representatives. madam, pursuant to section 4-b of house resolution 5, 111th congress, i am pleased to appoint the following members to the house democracy assistance commission. the honorable david dreier of california. the honorable john boozman of arkansas. the honorable jeff fortenberry of nebraska. the honorable judy biggert of illinois. the honorable bill shuster of pennsylvania. the honorable kay granger of texas. the honorable charles w. boustany jr. of louisiana. the honorable k. michael conaway of texas. the honorable vern cannon of nebraska. i am pleased to fulfill their requests. signed sincerely, john a. boehner, republican leader. the speaker pro tempore: the house will come

the gentleman mr. holt is recognized for five minutes. >> thank you mr. chairman. i thank the witnesses for coming. let me begin with dr. angell. you have outlined a number of advantages of a single payer system. i was impressed by an article i read earlier this year. for example britain created the national health service based on the wartime health system and france created a system based on pre-war independent local insurance program. single-payer systems have some advantages. have you thought about how we could get to that if you see that as the idea from our fragmented system of today? n the writing committee that published an article on the journal of the american medical association august 13, 2003, that goes through how we would convert in considerable detail. excuse me. there's no time to do that here,

lewis, the republican members, mr. culberson, mr. ader holt and mr. bonner. i want to thank staffs on both sides of the aisle who spent long hours putting the bill together. dickson butler, adrian simpson, diana simpson, derek knewberry, and the minority staff, mike ringler and john marten d it is -- martens. overall, the bill as i said includes important increases to priority programs including the needs to address violent crime, particularly crime related to drug trafficking and gangs and the need to boost our nation's competitiveness through more investments in scientific research and improving science and math and education. however, i believe we could have met the most pressing needs by prioritizing within the lower allocation. this allocation given to the subcommittee is $64 billion, $6.8 billion or 11% of 2009 this allocation allows virtually every agency, account, and program to grow and i believe there was more than sufficient amount to address the highest priority needs. the rate of increased spending in the bill corresponds with the majority's over

eshoo of california for today, mr. holt of new jersey for today, mr. gary miller of california for today, mr. jones of north carolina for today, mr. gingrey of georgia for today, and mr. rogers of michigan for today. the speaker pro tempore: without objection, the requests are granted.