Congressional Record United States Th of America PROCEEDINGS and DEBATES of the 114 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION
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E PL UR UM IB N U U S Congressional Record United States th of America PROCEEDINGS AND DEBATES OF THE 114 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 161 WASHINGTON, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 7, 2015 No. 147 House of Representatives The House met at 10 a.m. and was One from the Fiscal Times, Sep- The little girls beside me, Mr. Speak- called to order by the Speaker pro tem- tember 23, ‘‘U.S. Wasted Billions of er, Eden and Stephanie Balduf, their pore (Mr. STEWART). Dollars Rebuilding Afghanistan.’’ daddy was training Afghanistan citi- The second headline from the New f zens to be policemen, and they were York Times, October 1, ‘‘Afghan Forces shot and killed by the man they were DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO on the Run.’’ training. Poor little girls represent so TEMPORE The third headline, ‘‘U.S. Soldiers many families whose loved ones have The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be- Told to Ignore Sexual Abuse of Boys by died in Afghanistan for nothing but a fore the House the following commu- Afghan Military Leaders.’’ waste. I am so outraged about the third nication from the Speaker: With that, Mr. Speaker, I ask God to headline story that I am demanding please bless our men and women in uni- WASHINGTON, DC. answers on the Pentagon’s policy of October 7, 2015. form, please bless America, and, God, permitting Afghan men to rape young I hereby appoint the Honorable CHRIS please wake up the Congress before it boys on U.S. military bases. I have STEWART to act as Speaker pro tempore on is too late on Afghanistan. written a letter to the chairman of the this day. f JOHN A. BOEHNER, House Armed Services Committee and Speaker of the House of Representatives. asked him to hold hearings on this UMPQUA COMMUNITY COLLEGE f issue. We need to get to the bottom of SHOOTING this. The SPEAKER pro tempore. The MORNING-HOUR DEBATE Afghanistan is the graveyard of em- Chair recognizes the gentleman from pires. We are headed to the graveyard. The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- Oregon (Mr. BLUMENAUER) for 5 min- ant to the order of the House of Janu- We need to borrow money just to carry utes. ary 6, 2015, the Chair will now recog- on the needless war. We need to borrow Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, nize Members from lists submitted by money just to pay our bills. last Thursday another horrific episode We are over $18 trillion in debt, and the majority and minority leaders for of gun violence—the seemingly unre- President Obama signed us up for 8 morning-hour debate. lenting stream of tragedy and horror— more years in Afghanistan, 8 more The Chair will alternate recognition only this time it was visited on Oregon, between the parties, with each party years of wasted money. No one even listens to John Sopko, the Inspector in a modest mill town of Roseburg. limited to 1 hour and each Member The scene of the carnage was a pic- other than the majority and minority General for Afghan Reconstruction, who has testified before Congress many turesque, some would say idyllic, com- leaders and the minority whip limited munity college campus just north of to 5 minutes, but in no event shall de- times. He releases report after report detailing the waste, fraud, and abuse in town, where a shooter burst into a bate continue beyond 11:50 a.m. Afghanistan, and no one in Congress classroom at Umpqua Community Col- f seems to care. lege and started methodically killing nine people, wounding seven others. CONGRESS SHOULD FOCUS ON FIX- According to Sopko, we have spent more in 14 years trying to shape Af- On the 274th day of 2015, this was the ING OUR PROBLEMS HERE AT 294th such episode. President Obama HOME ghanistan into a functional country, which is a fool’s errand, at best, than made an impassioned, forceful, and The SPEAKER pro tempore. The we did on the entire Marshall Plan to poignant response—at once fierce and Chair recognizes the gentleman from rebuild Europe after World War II. sad, as eloquent as anything I have North Carolina (Mr. JONES) for 5 min- In the next fiscal year, we will spend heard him say throughout his political utes. $42.5 billion in Afghanistan, and the career. Mr. JONES. Mr. Speaker, the recent Congressional Budget Office estimates And who could blame him? Not a sin- news about Afghanistan is, at best, dis- that we will spend $30 billion a year for gle calendar week has passed during his tressing. Soon Congress will be debat- the next 8 years. We are committed to second term without another mass ing an increase in the debt ceiling so staying in Afghanistan. This is the shooting. we can borrow more money to pay our longest war in the history of America. The core of his message was the ques- bills. The sad part is that some of that History has proven that we will never tion for all Americans, especially the money will go to Afghanistan. change this tribal nation and we should apologists for gun violence: Why is the Three recent headlines are most dis- stop trying. Instead, let’s focus on fix- United States the only developed coun- couraging: ing our problems here in America. try in the world that cannot protect b This symbol represents the time of day during the House proceedings, e.g., b 1407 is 2:07 p.m. Matter set in this typeface indicates words inserted or appended, rather than spoken, by a Member of the House on the floor. H6839 . VerDate Sep 11 2014 02:08 Oct 08, 2015 Jkt 059060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 7634 Sfmt 0634 E:\CR\FM\A07OC7.000 H07OCPT1 SSpencer on DSK4SPTVN1PROD with HOUSE H6840 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE October 7, 2015 our families from gun massacres? No HONORING ERCELLE S. CARTER’S back to school to better themselves other country comes remotely close to 100TH BIRTHDAY and their families, and an assistant this carnage. Why should we lose 15 The SPEAKER pro tempore. The professor of English who used his writ- times as many as our family members Chair recognizes the gentleman from ing talents to teach others, all gone as Germany every year? West Virginia (Mr. MOONEY) for 5 min- too soon. When other countries like Canada, utes. Their lives are lost in tragedy, the Britain, and Australia—that are prob- Mr. MOONEY of West Virginia. Mr. kind of tragedy that our Nation has ably more similar to our country than Speaker, I rise today to honor Mrs. suffered with increasing regularity. any others—why were they able to re- Ercelle S. Carter of Institute, West Vir- There have been more mass shootings spond not just with outrage or mo- ginia, who is celebrating her 100th this year than there have been cal- ments of silence, but with action after birthday on October 25, 2015. endar days, 294 mass shootings in less mass shooting events, to make a dif- Ercelle was born on October 25, 1915, than 280 days. ference, to make their families safer, 10 in Fayetteville, West Virginia. She is In 2015 alone, there have been nearly times safer in Australia than in the one of two children of John Saunders 40,000 gun violence tragedies, with United States? It is past time that peo- and Harriet Agee Saunders. nearly 10,000 people killed and 20,000 ple who claim to be leaders in both par- Growing up, she attended Levi Ele- wounded. Yet, sadly, each gun violence ties answer this question. mentary, Boyd Junior High School, tragedy is met with another tragedy I am pleased that the response from and graduated from Garnet High here in Congress, the tragedy of inac- my party was not one of hopelessness, School in 1933. She enrolled at West tion. resignation, or ‘‘stuff happens,’’ but in- Virginia State College and graduated People are dying. People are dying stead calls to action with simple, com- with degrees in home economics and el- from gun violence every single day in monsense steps that are widely sup- ementary education in 1937. America, and this Congress does noth- ported by the American public. On April 27, 1940, she married Ulysses ing. As President Obama said last I am pleased that Hillary Clinton was Grant Carter. They were married for 53 week, ‘‘We collectively are answerable first and foremost with a strong call to years, until his death in 1993. to those families who lose their loved action. I am pleased that Senator BER- Ercelle was a homemaker and a stay- ones because of our inaction.’’ NIE SANDERS appears to be changing his at-home mom until 1959, when she I have been a Member of the House of attitude and policies on gun safety. began her professional career as a Representatives for nearly 7 years. In It is interesting that two Democratic that time, tens of thousands of lives Senators running for re-election last teacher at Shawnee Elementary School and retired from Mound Elementary in have been lost, but this body has re- year, Mark Begich and Mark Pryor, fused to hold even one hearing address- who cast what I can only describe as a 1979. Ercelle has led an outstanding life, ing the gun violence epidemic that is craven vote against universal back- plaguing our country. ground checks, lost anyway. It ought highlighted with her love of family and service to her community. I wish her In that time, not even once have we to be a message about our values and had a vote on the floor on anything, our direction.