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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 111 CONGRESS, FIRST SESSION Vol. 155 WASHINGTON, TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2009 No. 190 House of Representatives The House met at 9 a.m. and was MORNING-HOUR DEBATE DECISION TO PROSECUTE GUANTA- called to order by the Speaker pro tem- NAMO BAY TERRORISTS IN NEW pore (Mr. CUELLAR). The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursu- YORK CITY f ant to the order of the House of Janu- ary 6, 2009, the Chair will now recog- The SPEAKER pro tempore. The DESIGNATION OF SPEAKER PRO nize Members from lists submitted by Chair recognizes the gentleman from TEMPORE the majority and minority leaders for North Carolina (Mr. COBLE) for 5 min- The SPEAKER pro tempore laid be- morning-hour debate. utes. fore the House the following commu- nication from the Speaker: The Chair will alternate recognition Mr. COBLE. Mr. Speaker, I pre- WASHINGTON, DC, between the parties, with each party viously came to the well of the House December 15, 2009. limited to 25 minutes and each Mem- to voice my disappointment in the then I hereby appoint the Honorable ber, other than the majority and mi- recently announced decision to pros- HENRY CUELLAR to act as Speaker pro nority leaders and the minority whip, ecute certain Gitmo detainees, Gitmo tempore on this day. limited to 5 minutes, but in no event terrorists, in New York City. NANCY PELOSI, Speaker of the House of Representatives. shall debate continue beyond 9:50 a.m. NOTICE If the 111th Congress, 1st Session, adjourns sine die on or before December 23, 2009, a final issue of the Congres- sional Record for the 111th Congress, 1st Session, will be published on Thursday, December 31, 2009, to permit Members to insert statements. All material for insertion must be signed by the Member and delivered to the respective offices of the Official Reporters of Debates (Room HT–59 or S–123 of the Capitol), Monday through Friday, between the hours of 10:00 a.m. and 3:00 p.m. through Wednesday, December 30. The final issue will be dated Thursday, December 31, 2009, and will be delivered on Monday, January 4, 2010. None of the material printed in the final issue of the Congressional Record may contain subject matter, or relate to any event, that occurred after the sine die date. Senators’ statements should also be formatted according to the instructions at http://webster/secretary/conglrecord.pdf, and submitted electronically, either on a disk to accompany the signed statement, or by e-mail to the Official Reporters of Debates at ‘‘[email protected]’’. Members of the House of Representatives’ statements may also be submitted electronically by e-mail, to accompany the signed statement, and formatted according to the instructions for the Extensions of Remarks template at http:// clerk.house.gov/forms. The Official Reporters will transmit to GPO the template formatted electronic file only after receipt of, and authentication with, the hard copy, and signed manuscript. Deliver statements to the Official Reporters in Room HT–59. Members of Congress desiring to purchase reprints of material submitted for inclusion in the Congressional Record may do so by contacting the Office of Congressional Publishing Services, at the Government Printing Office, on 512–0224, between the hours of 8:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m. daily. By order of the Joint Committee on Printing. CHARLES E. SCHUMER, Chairman. 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. H14879 . VerDate Nov 24 2008 00:02 Dec 16, 2009 Jkt 089060 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 7634 Sfmt 8633 E:\CR\FM\A15DE7.000 H15DEPT1 dcolon on DSK2BSOYB1PROD with HOUSE H14880 CONGRESSIONAL RECORD — HOUSE December 15, 2009 I return today, Mr. Speaker, to reit- with a critical discussion on how we more energy than anybody in the erate my concern and disappointment are going to meet those challenges. Our world. It’s exciting to see the European about this ill-advised decision, which, delegation is going to be somewhat Union, China and India all acting, at in my opinion, will cause our prosecu- unique because, while other groups of least in their own way, moving in this torial ship of state to sail directly into parliamentarians in other countries direction. The dominos are falling for the tide of procedural reefs, rocks and are of different parties and disagree on new, clean, energy economies, man- shoals. When ships steam near reefs, the best solution to deal with climate aging forests to protect the planet and rocks and shoals, collisions and/or change and extreme weather events, new sustainable agriculture. groundings become imminent, if not in- ours, with the possible exception of All this will happen. The question is evitable. Saudi Arabia, will be the only one when. I am encouraged that in Copen- The commanding officer of this ship, where there are some people who actu- hagen there is a process that the President Obama, and his executive of- ally question the science and the need United States can help move us for- ficer for this issue, the Attorney Gen- for action. ward. eral, should bring this ship about, ter- This is unfortunate, because the facts f minate the course now pursued and for- are clear. Even regarding the recent TIME FOR A NEW APPROACH TO mulate a better course that will serve dust up over stolen e-mails of some of RESTORE OUR ECONOMY good purposes. The present decision, in the climate scientists, it doesn’t my opinion, serves no good purpose and change the scientific consensus that we The SPEAKER pro tempore. The is seriously flawed. are involved in a period of significant Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from My disappointment regarding this global warming and that human activ- Florida (Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN) for 5 min- matter, Mr. Speaker, is shared by thou- ity is the cause. Despite some dispute utes. sands and thousands of New Yorkers over whether this year is the fourth, Ms. ROS-LEHTINEN. Mr. Speaker, it specifically and Americans generally. fifth or sixth warmest in history, there is time for a new approach to bring our New Yorkers should not be forced to is no question but that the current dec- country back to where it was for most endure 9/11 yet again. ade will be the hottest since we began of the two centuries, the land of hope What about the costs that will be in- recording temperatures. and opportunity. evitably incurred to conduct these Even with the consensus on science, Unfortunately, there is a growing prosecutions? Thousands upon thou- there still is a great deal of real con- fear about our Nation’s future among sands of dollars will be spent, thou- troversy in Copenhagen about how we many in my congressional district, as sands upon thousands of dollars we are going to move forward. well as throughout the Nation. The simply do not have. I think it’s very important for us to economic recession continues, accord- Mr. Speaker, furthermore, many of highlight the encouraging dynamic ing to many constituents with whom I us fear that the decision to prosecute that is taking shape, because there is a speak every day. in New York City has the trappings of consensus for taking action. The ques- My constituents tell me how they converting the courtroom into a three- tion is in implementation both of speed have personally felt the constant ring circus to the detriment of Amer- and scale. drumbeat of rising unemployment, the ica, public relations-wise. I have ear- There is good news that the United ballooning cost of college tuitions, the nestly tried to detect something posi- States is no longer missing in action. reality of postponing retirement and tive about this decision, and I have As the world’s largest economy, the the continuing credit implosion that come up empty time and time again. second largest emitter this year and has hurt so many homeowners and I fear President Obama and Attorney still the leader in the history of the small businesses. No doubt our Nation General Holder are so rigidly inflexible world in total emissions, it’s important continues to struggle and people need in defending their decision. This aside, that the United States finally joins help. I respectfully urge them to reconsider with the rest of the developed world to But the congressional majority and and reexamine the decision, hopefully deal with this question. It is encour- the administration have spent the last reject it and subsequently embrace a aging that the Obama administration year on an agenda that grows big gov- policy that is more sound and that will and the new Congress has been acting ernment, that escalates the deficit, attract more support from the Amer- from the very beginning of this session that borrows billions from adversarial ican people. of Congress with an $80 billion invest- foreign governments. As a result of This is a terrible decision, Mr. Speak- ment in clean energy. this unprecedented government spend- er, and I hope it can be rectified. After years of delay, the Obama ad- ing spree, our national debt will reach f ministration acted on what we passed unchartered levels, doubling over the in the last Congress to increase the next 5 years and tripling in just 10 GLOBAL WARMING long overdue improvement in auto- years.