klein: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the gentleman and the chairman for his leadership and the opportunity to engage in a brief colloquy. i rise today to ask for your help in improving the care of our wounded warriors. later this weekley introduce the wounded warrior to establish a program for organizations to provide wounded warriors and disabled veterans with service animals like physical therapy dogs and guide dogs. there are several organizations around the country that train animals to work with disabled soldiers and veterans. these organizations, like many not for profit organizations, are struggling at this it moment to collect necessary resources in these difficult economic time. s. the difference between these organizations and others is that they're giving our soldiers and veterans a service that they have earned. i applaud their private fundraising an at the same time i realize that this is our responsibility as well. mr. chairman, this legislation will allow the government to keep its promise to ameri

klein. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. klein: i thank the speaker and the gentleman from west virginia. i rise today to your knowledge my colleagues to support h. res. 529, a bipartisan resolution that i offered with mr. pence, mr. waxman, mr. smith and mr. engel and i thank the speaker for promptly bringing it to the floor today. with the input and guidance from many members of this chamber as well as the bipartisan congressional task force against amendment semitism. i rise today in great sorrow as this nation mourns the loss of officer johns who was killed yesterday at the united states holocaust memorial museum at the hands of a hateful white supremacist. i offer condolences of officer jaunches and condemn the vicious attack on the holocaust memorial. the museum is a place of reflection and expression of the addage, never again. the museum seeks a world without racism, anti-sifmentism, holocaust denial and intolerance. this vicious attack hurt all americans. a hate crime in every sense, this attack violates all of us.

following through on mr. klein's question, mr. roh -- mrs. romer, d cbo score the senate at $1.60 trillion. it is not provide an employer mandate or payroll attacks. the house bill will cost about $1 trillion, largely due to the mandate to provide insurance or 88% payroll tax. how important is it that the employers continue to provide insurance along with other non providing employers? is 8% adequate or realistic? does the senate a bill to meet the president standards? >> i think you are all getting at a key issue, which is how one structures the employer shared responsibility. that is important to maintaining the system that we have, the employer based insurance. that is certainly important. the detail are sending it will be analyzing more. i am sure that the congressional office will be analyzing it more. one issue of one to bring up, as mr. klein was talking about, slowing the growth rate of costs and our report shows that it has a beneficial effect on employment. by having a time when cost is not rising as much, gives as a period of unusu

i thank congressman klein for sponsoring this important resolution. mr. rahall: i yield one minute to ms. schwartz. the speaker pro tempore: the gentlewoman is recognized for one minute. ms. schwartz: thank you, mr. speaker. and i rise today to add my voice to all those who denounce the hate and violence and condemning yesterday's attack at the u.s. holocaust museum and to extend my thoughts and prayers to the family and friends of officer steafen johns. racism, anti--- stephen johns. racism, anti-semitism and other forms of hatred are not new. they impact too many people here and around the world. as a child of a holocaust survivor, i know all too well the destruction and suffering that hate can bring. this same kind of intolerance that my mother faced in austria in the 1930's still feeds the actions of foreign terrorists and domestic hate groups. we all have a role to play in combating bigotry and intolerance, wherever it may be and it's a sad reminder of the work that we have to do that yesterday's tragic crime occurred so soon after president obama's

and the republicans, mr. klein and mr. hoekstra -- mr. hoekstra said he discussed this with a number of members of the panel and that -- of the subcommittee -- and he drew the same conclusion. but the point is taken that we don't know if there was information that may have led these republicans to draw a different conclusion. they may in fact be sayihearingt they want to hear. we may know if this process gets opened up. host: jared allen, thafrg you f -- thank you for being on the program. in a minute we will talk to john mcmanus, author and historian from st. louis. we will talk to him about the 65th anniversary of d-day. first, we want to look back at the invasion of the normandy, d-day, and we will look at ceremonies to commemorate the 65th anniversary. president obama will speak at normandy in the tradition of past presidents. we want to show you some of the anniversary speeches of past presidents including president reagan, president clinton and the second president bush. >> here the allies stood and fought against tyranny in the gia

klein. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized for two minutes. mr. klein: i rise to support h.res. 560, i would like to thank mr. behr hahn and mr. pence for bringing this bipartisan statement forward which supports our american view of the events in iran. the iranian people deserve a democracy that counts every vote and treats its citizens with the utmost dignity. they deserve to trust their own government. however, these are not free and fair elections by any stretch of the imagination. and it's our imperative to speak out whenever and wherever our freedom is oppressed. frankly, we have honest differences with the iranian government no mat whore is elected. any iranian government that speaks nuclear weapons is a threat to the united states and our allies. that's why the united states has not taken either side this in this conflict. it is for the iranians to choose who leads them. indeed this struggle belongs to them. however, the message we send today is, the world is watching. i urge my colleagues to support this resolution and i yield back the ba

mr. larsen: i yield four minutes to the co-sponsor of this resolution, mr. klein of florida. the speaker pro tempore: the chair recognizes the gentleman from florida for four minutes. mr. klein: i thank the gentleman from washington for yielding time and i want to commend him for his leadership on this important issue. i rise today in support of house resolution 410, resolution that i introduced with my friend from south carolina, along with the distinguished co-chairs of the congressional boating caucus, congressman gene taylor and congresswoman miller from michigan. this highlights the contribution of the recreational boating community to the quality of our life and continued economic prosperity and urge president obama to issue a proclamation calling upon the american people to observe july 1 as national boating day. boating is a famous symbol from south florida where i come from. millions of residents in our community and tourists take to the waters of south florida to boat, fish, dive, snorkell and do scenic tours along our coastline and unique coastal waterway. palm bea

mr. berman: i yield the remaining time on this amendment to the gentleman from florida, mr. klein. mr. klein: i rise today to also oppose the gentlelady's amendment. the underlying legislation contains common sense provisions to ensure we're making the most use of our taxpayer funds in our diplomatic mission. there are a wide variety of opinions about how effective our diplomatic provisions have been and we appreciate the men and women in the diplomatic core. we can do -- diplomatic corps. we can do better. this will allow the state department and usaid to be more efficient in their speing and reduce due public kative efforts. dupe licktive efforts. it also includes a quad renall review of our plan for u.s. diplomacy, just like the defense department does every four years. this to me is exactly what we should be doing in this bill as we begin a new way of looking at our diplomatic efforts. i appreciate the gentlewoman's effort but i think this is fundamentally a crucial part of this piece of legislation. i urge my colleagues to oppose this amendment and yield back the balance of my

mr. scott: i recognize the gentleman from florida, mr. klein, two minutes. the chair: the gentleman is recognized. mr. klein: i thank the gentleman. i rise to oppose the gentlelady's amendment. while i respectfully disagree the purpose of today's bill is to do anything other than improve the quality of a diplomatic effort that our men and women around the world are doing. and i think this is exactly the direction of the bill is doing. i think it does it in a right, efficient way. this particular amendment would disallow an important film called "a fateful harvest," a documentary that exposes the poppy trade that the taliban has used to impress the afghan people from broad distribution. it forbids the voice of america from releasing its products in the united states. and the original intention is that a u.s. government agency should not be able to brainwash americans or put things out that would not -- that would not be objectable -- objectionable thing. it would require an act of congress to waive this law. but let's be clear, congress has waived this provis

klein: thank you, mr. speaker. i thank the congressman. i rise to support the rule and underlying legislation, foreign relations authorization act of 2009. this bill will allow us to advance our foreign policy and national security goals and i believe very strongly in that goal. i would also like to briefly speak about one provision in the bill that will help ensure the safety of many americans. as many of us know, june 1 is the beginning of hurricane season and there are many ways to be prepared. hurricane hunter planes used by the air force fly into hurricane areas to more accurately predict where a hurricane is going. however certain countries are not allowing these planes to fly into their airspace. if one country obstructs our hurricane preparedness efforts, it can be the difference between life and death. this legislation puts in place measures so the state department can resolve this issue as soon as possible and help protect our americans. i'd like to thank the chairman for allowing us to work on this issue and all the others with

the chair recognizes the gentleman from florida, mr. klein, for five minutes. mr. klein: thank you, madam speaker. by the end of this year we hope to pass a comprehensive energy bill which will help this country move forward on clean renewable american energy and certainly will help fuel our economic recovery. as co-chair of the new democratic coalition on energy, i believe now is the time for a robust, mark-driven based approach to approach our energy's needs. we have to pass legislation that will make smart investments in alternative energy. i think every american understands the common sense behind that. these are the kinds ever things that will make us more viable and competitive not only here in the united states but abroad for our american companies. it's also clear as we know as we get into this energy debate this is about our national security, the fact that we continue to import 60% of our oil plus from countries outside the united states. many of which particularly in the middle east are not our friends and our enemies and funding our enemies. we also kno

he answered again, i don't believe mr. klein violated the rules of the committee. i don't want to read too much of that he is speaking sort of to what is in his universe. we'll see as to how the democrats deal with the republicans on their committee and if the justice department decides if this is something they want to look into. the speaker of the house has been embroiled for weeks now about what you she has been told and what she did then in response to that. on may 14, she had a press conference in which she was asked a number of questions about this issue and ended the conference by saying the c.i.a. essentially lied to her and that they do it all the time. she has not said anything further to explain that despite numerous republican calls for her to either prove what she claim $or prove to the democrats or in a difficult spot. i think republicans know that or are aware of this issue >> do you think this might have been a strategy to get the speaker reengaged in this debate or to troo to de-rail or alter what she had laid out as a pretty aggressive legislative

klein and we'll go back to our side. >> thank you, mr. chairman, for sorting that out. i must admit it got a little bit confusing. a lot of members. a lot of panels. my first day, that's my excuse. i don't know. >> mine too. [laughter] >> i wanted to talk a little bit about small businesses. there's some unanswered questions in the draft legislation but there are some things that are in there. so the first thing i want to grapple here for a minute is what you're defining as a small business. is that 10 employees, 25, 50, 100. you have a working definition that you're working with? >> well, we represent the interest of those of 100 employees or fewer but that -- it may be the legislation ends upsetting different standards -- of different amounts that are less than that. >> i was trying to put in context what the bulk of your comments were addressed -- concerning businesses up to 100 employees. but in the legislation, it seems to me -- it says it provides a health insurance tax credit for small businesses equal to 50% of the cost of coverage for firms where the average em

with that, i would like to recognize mr. klein. >> that you, mr. chairman. thank you for your kind welcome. that may be the only time i ever get a round of applause from all here mr. chairman. i want to think our witness for being here. you will be a very distinguished panel. there are a lot of interesting party sitting out in front of us. health-care spending accounts for one sixth of our

thank you, mr. chairman. >> thank you mr. klein. and now we will hear from the gentleman from texas. >> thank you, mr. chairman, as a perspective from a member of this committee and a member of the oversight committee and the t.a.r.p. program, there are but four causes of the economic recession, and none loom larger than the monopoly powers granted to fannie and freddie coupled with the so-called affordable housing mission that essentially mandated that they loan money to people to buy homes that ultimately they could not afford to stay in. many of them have said though that under hr-1427 passed in may of '07 that somehow this situation has been rect ffied. since that legislation, the conforming loans have increased to $729,000 increasing the taxpayer liability, and the increasing portfolios of the gses have been increased and more taxpayer exposure and the shares of mortgages have increased which increases taxpayer exposure, and now taxpayers are forced to invest $87 billion for the preferred stock provisions and exposed to up to $

klein, for introducing it and including me as a co-sponsor. mr. speaker, the holocaust memorial museum is a noble and vitally necessary attempt to remember and honor the victims of the holocaust. the memorial itself is a witness to truth and the promotion of human dignity and tolerance. wednesday's attack on that museum by a crazed hate philed gunman is yet another chilling reminder that our society still harbored a dangerous collection of bigots and racists who hate jews. unparalleled since the dark days of the second world war, jewish communities around the world are today facing violent attacks against synagogue, jewish cultural sites, cemeteries, and individuals. anti-semitism is an ugly reality that won't go away by ignoring it or by wishing it away. it must be combated with resolve and tenacity. and it must be defeated. the sad and deeply troubling reality is that james von brunn cannot be dismissed as an aberration but is connected to a whole hate promoting movement that results in violence against jews in america and around the world on pr

klein for his statement. >> good morning. we are here today as the title of this hearing implies to examine a single payer health care and we will hear from chairman conyers and from the panel of experts single payer is certainly among the most controversial approach to health-care reform and frankly mr. chairman i am surprised to see it on the subcommittee agenda. , and democratic leaders have been very clear and public in rejecting the notion of single payer and frankly i am glad that they have procreating a new one size fits all systems based on medicare is a recipe for disaster would balloon the deficit and add to our mounting debt will drive down medical innovation and rationing care while empowering bureaucrats. of my friends on the other side of the i/o have not included republicans in their deliberations. i have been following them closely in the news. the latest reports indicate they could formally unveiled their legislation as early as next week while the proposal reported does not include a single player scheme it

i remember mr. klein indicated early on in the hearing that he raised questions about 23 million losing coverage as a result of a cbo score of the senate help committee. of course, if you look at the cbo score, you'll see that they've said it's an incomplete analysis of an incomplete bill. and i don't think we're going to see anything like that with respect to the house bill. this provides new opportunities to get coverage if you're in a small business. it creates a health insurance exchange which does something which the american public wants, namely, they want to have the same kind of options that members of congress have and the health exchange is going to provide that opportunity and in so doing it'll provide accurate and helpful information about benefits and rights. it creates reasonable rules about how insurance companies should operate. so that if you have insurance, you actually know what you're getting as opposed to find out that you didn't have something at a point when you need care. and

angell the chance to answer and then go to mr. klein. >> i'm skeptical about your premise that 70% of care costs go to the chronic disease. >> its 80% and 75%. >> i know at least 30% goes to overhead, administrative costs and profits so all the rest don't go to these chronic diseases but still, to go to your point. we have as i've said a market-driven system that preferentially rewards specialists for doing highly paid tests and procedures. that's why we have more specialists and other countries, way too many specialists and why we have too few primary care doctors. a single payer system could take care of that and change the schedule or change the way doctors are paid so that we would have more primary-care doctors who would do more to help people live with their chronic conditions if they have them or prevent them where it's possible so i think it is a matter of the market rewarding people for doing things and that's exactly what they do, tests and procedures. >> thank you. we will turn to the ranking member from minnesota, mr.

mr. klein: thank you, madam speaker. it's an honor to be here today to talk in this house about energy. this is a moment in time. i think most americans understand this great opportunity we have to really turn things around in our future in this country. and it's about three principle elements that aren't just tied to high cost of gasoline. it's about national security. it's about a better environment. and probably one of the most important things for this moment, it's about jobs. it's about a new economy. we just talked about national security, i think all of of us understand very clearly, every american no matter where you're from understands the fact that importing oil and a lot of the dependency we have, 60% or so of the oil that we take in the united states comes from outside the united states, and we depend unfortunately on many countries that are at best not our friends and worst our mortal enemies who are funding terrorism and threats against the united states and our allies around the world. and the sooner we ca

in closing, mr. speaker, i would like to thank our committee chairman, representative george miller from california, and our ranking member, john kline, along with our ranking member -- john klein, along with our ranking member on the subcommittee, representative guthrie of kentucky, toer --er for expediting this legislation and helping us make these needed corrections in a bipartisan manner. i urge all my colleagues to vote yes on h.r. 1777. thank you. i reserve the balance of my time. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman reserves the balance of his time. the gentleman from pennsylvania, mr. thompson. mr. thompson: thank you, mr. speaker. i rise in support of this legislation and i yield myself such time as i may consume. the speaker pro tempore: the gentleman is recognized. mr. thompson: the house easily passed this bill under suspension at the end of march and as often happens with the legislative process when it went to the senate a few changes were made. therefore we are here again today simpl

. >> mr. collins? >> sir, we do have the question on our application but i am not aware as to whether or not the -- what the underwriting guidelines are we ask have you been rescinded or dough kleined by another carrier. >> don't know what happens with that information. >> no, sir i imagine it triggers an investigation but i don't know if there is an unwriting policy that is directly related to that, it is a black and white policy. >> yes. we would not provide coverage in that situation. >> so, do you ever look to see if a rescission -- the circumstances around another company's rescinding of a policy? before you just -- i mean, if they check the box and said yes. i was rescinded in the past. >> our underwriting guidelines are we would not issue the policy. >> wow. mr. collins? is that your under -- can somebody tell you from your -- >> -- is that your underwriting policy too, into i don't know, sir, i would be happy to get back to you with an answer on that. >> mr. sassi is that your company's policy.

mr. klein? >> thank you for that terrific question. this is a very difficult area to quantify. it is one that we really urged congress to pay attention to. we are serious about these issues, and we believe that you are as well. we believe there will be substantial savings. .