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Amendment Offered by Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas

Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas: Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

The Chairman: The Clerk will designate the amendment.

The text of the amendment is as follows:

Amendment offered by Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas:

Page 49, after line 11, insert the following new section:

Sec. 409. (a) The Secretary of Veterans Affairs shall increase the number of medical centers specializing in post- traumatic stress disorder in underserved urban areas, which shall include using the services of existing health care entities.

(b) At least one of the existing health care institutions used by the Secretary pursuant to subsection (a) shall be--

(1) located in an area defined as a HUBzone (as that term is defined in section 3(p) of the Small Business Act (15 U.S.C. 632(p)) on the basis of one or more qualified census tracts;

(2) located within a State that has sustained more than five percent of the total causalities suffered by the United States Armed Forces in Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, as May 1, 2007; and

(3) have at least 20 years experience and significant expertise in providing treatment and counseling services with respect to substance abuse, alcohol addiction, and psychiatric or stress-related disorders to populations with special needs, including veterans and members of the Armed Forces serving on active duty.

The Chairman: Pursuant to the order of the House of today, the gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.

The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from Texas.

Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas: Mr. Chairman, let me offer my appreciation to the full Committee on Appropriations, both the chairman and ranking member, and to this subcommittee. I've seen enormous commitment to bipartisanship between Mr. Edwards and, of course, Mr. Wicker. But my good colleague and friend from Texas has outdone himself, and this particular veterans appropriation, the Military Construction Veterans Affairs appropriation, signifies nothing but joy for Americans and veterans all across this country.

Might I just cite the fact that this bill moves above the President's budget in medical services, making it $28.9 billion; moves above the President's request on homeless vets, $130 million; moves above the President's request on medical facilities, $4.1 billion; and moves above it on extended care facilities, $165 million.

Many of us have risen to the floor today to talk about post-traumatic stress. I just wanted to remind my colleagues of the kind of horror and nightmare that many of our soldiers and returning soldiers and veterans live with, suffering from PTSD. It is simply to acknowledge the fact that over and over again you relive the tragedy of the experience, whether it's small arms fire, whether it's IEDs, whether it's seeing your comrade fall in battle in front of you, whether it's seeing his body implode, you know that you're reliving it, and the number one basis of PTSD is military and combat exposure.

Just for the record, let me acknowledge that 94 percent of the soldiers in Iraq reported receiving small arms fire; 86 percent of soldiers in Iraq reported knowing someone who was seriously injured or killed. This is a major issue and it is a major part of the lives of our soldiers.

Mr. Chairman, my amendment simply was to do this: It was to provide more medical centers in places like rural areas or small cities to be able to be utilized for PTSD. I know Chairman Edwards knows this issue because it was his leadership that generated the change of the Waco veterans hospital into a mental health facility. I want that to continue to stand, and I want to thank him for the increased dollars he's put in for PTSD.

But, Mr. Chairman, I have a veterans advisory committee that's indicated that we need centers around the Nation, smaller centers maybe in small hospitals, that would respond to veterans and returning soldiers, maybe even to the extent of reimbursing them by being in those particular centers.

Let me close by simply saying that this bill is comprehensive. I look forward to working with the chairman on more permanent housing for the disabled, as we work toward more PTSD facilities, even though we have a great amount of resources here, more adjusted housing, if you will, for those who are coming back so they're not living alone.

I want to take special privilege to acknowledge the DeGeorge in my community for my homeless vets, a facility for homeless vets, DeGeorge at Union Station and U.S. Vets. All of them confront veterans and returning soldiers with PTSD. If we expand these facilities so that rural and small cities and even inner city areas, which is what my amendment is focused on, everybody would have the opportunity to be able to access help with PTSD.

I would ask my colleagues to consider as we move toward conference to be able to work on this issue in an expanded way.

Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas: Mr. Chairman, I rise to speak in strong support of the bill and in favor of my amendment. I also rise to express my sincere appreciation to Mr. Edwards, the chairman of the Appropriations I subcommittee on Veterans Affairs and Military Construction, and the Chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, Mr. Filner, for all they have done and continue to do to make real President Lincoln's admonition that "we care for him who has borne the battle, and for his widow and orphan."

In particular, I wish to commend Chairman Edwards, for the leadership, commitment, and foresight he has demonstrated on the issue of PTSD and the overall mental health of our nation's veterans. On February 28, 2007, he announced that $3 million has been made available for the Waco VA PTSD program in 2006 which is now available so that researchers at Fort Hood, Texas A&M, Baylor, the Temple VA, and the Waco VA hospital work towards realizing their goal of making the Waco VA, in conjunction with Ft. Hood and the Temple VA, a world-class PTSD and mental health care research center.

Like Mr. Edwards and Mr. Filner, I am committed to improving the lives of thousands of veterans who have risked their lives for our nation, and I believe my amendment plays a crucial role in ensuring that veterans suffering from PTSD receive the medical treatment they desperately need.

Mr. Chairman, thank you for this opportunity to explain my amendment to H.R. 2642, the Veterans Affairs and Military Construction Appropriations Act for Fiscal Year of 2008. As a Member of Congress from Texas, a state which has sustained more casualties in the ongoing conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq than all but one other, I am pleased to offer this amendment. This amendment is intended to address the urgent need for more post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) treatment and counseling facilities servicing veterans living in some of the more distressed areas of our country.

Mr. Chairman, according to Webster's, dignity is "the quality or condition of being esteemed, honored or worthy." We can never do enough to honor our wounded veterans. Studies have shown that 30 percent of troops deployed to Iraq suffer from depression, anxiety, or post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). However, when wounded troops return home the treatment they receive is more befitting a second class citizen than a hero. This is a shame and a great stain on our nation.

How these problems could be overlooked or neglected by this Administration is unfathomable. The very leaders that these brave young men and women rely on let them down. The message that incidents like Walter Reed Medical Center sends to our troops is that we do not care enough. But that is not the message we wish to send. The Veterans Administration and Military Construction Appropriations Act of 2008, H.R. 2642, will go long away toward correcting this misapprehension. All members of the House are indebted to our colleague, Mr. Edwards of Texas, for his masterful leadership in shepherding this landmark legislation to the House floor. For the 25,380, 2,401 from Texas, brave men and women who have been wounded in Iraq and Afghanistan, help is on the way. And the 3,519, 298 from Texas, heroes who have given the last full measure of devotion will always be in our hearts and prayers.

Mr. Chairman, my amendment requires the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to increase the number of medical facilities specializing in post- traumatic stress disorder located in underserved urban areas. Access to post-traumatic stress disorder treatment is especially important since veterans living in such areas are less likely to be diagnosed and treated for post-traumatic stress disorder.

Mr. Chairman, PTSD is one of the most prevalent and devastating psychological wounds suffered by the brave men and women fighting in far off lands to defend the values and freedom we hold dear.

For those of us whose daily existence is not lived in harm's way, it is difficult to imagine the horrific images that American servicemen and women deployed in Iraq, Afghanistan, and other theaters of war see on a daily basis. In an instant a suicide bomber, an lED, or an insurgent can obliterate your best friend and right in front of your face. Yet, you are trained and expected to continue on with the mission, and you do, even though you may not even have reached your 20th birthday.

But there always comes a reckoning. And it usually comes after stress and trauma of battle is over and you are alone with your thoughts and memories. And the horror of those desperate and dangerous encounters with the enemy and your own mortality come flooding back.

PTSD was first brought to public attention in relation to war veterans, but it can result from a variety of traumatic incidents, such as mugging, rape, torture, being kidnapped or held captive, child abuse, car accidents, train wrecks, plane crashes, bombings, or natural disasters such as floods or earthquakes.

People with PTSD may startle easily, become emotionally numb, especially in relation to people with whom they used to be close, lose interest in things they used to enjoy, have trouble feeling affectionate, be irritable, become more aggressive, or even become violent. They avoid situations that remind them of the original incident, and anniversaries of the incident are often very difficult. PTSD symptoms seem to be worse if the event that triggered them was deliberately initiated by another person, as in a mugging or a kidnapping. Most people with PTSD repeatedly relive the trauma in their thoughts during the day and in nightmares when they sleep. These are called flashbacks. Flashbacks may consist of images, sounds, smells, or feelings, and are often triggered by ordinary occurrences, such as a door slamming or a car backfiring on the street. A person having q flashback may lose touch with reality and believe that the traumatic incident is happening all over again.

Mr. Chairman, the matter is that most veterans with PTSD also have other psychiatric disorders, which are a consequence of PTSD. These veterans have co-occurring disorders, which include depression, alcohol and/or drug abuse problems, panic, and/or other anxiety disorders.

The current conflicts in Afghanistan and Iraq are the most continuous combat operations since Vietnam. Only one comprehensive study has examined the mental health impact of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and that was performed by Charles W. Hoge, MD. This study looked at the experience of soldiers in the war zone and symptoms of psychological distress. Soldiers in Iraq are at risk for being killed or wounded themselves, are likely to have witnessed the suffering of others, and may have participated in killing or wounding others as part of combat operations. All of these activities have a demonstrated association with the development of PTSD. Hoge's study indicated that 94 percent of soldiers in Iraq reported receiving small-arms fire. In addition, 86 percent of soldiers in Iraq reported knowing someone who was seriously injured or killed, 68 percent reported seeing dead or seriously injured Americans, and 51 percent reported handling or uncovering human remains. The majority, 77 percent, of soldiers deployed to Iraq reported shooting or directing fire at the enemy, 48 percent reported being responsible for the death of an enemy combatant, and 28 percent reported being responsible for the death of a noncombatant.

My amendment recognizes that these soldiers are first and foremost, human. They carry their experiences with them. Ask a Vietnam Veteran about the frequency of nightmares they experience, and one will realize that serving in the Armed Forces leaves a lasting impression, whether good or bad. My amendment ensures that no soldier is left behind. By directing the Secretary of Veterans Affairs to increase the number of medical facilities specializing in PTSD that are located in underserved urban areas, and conducting a concurrent study on increasing access to PTSD treatment at these facilities those soldiers will never feel forgotten or taken for granted. These soldiers can be certain that Members of Congress will ensure that they receive the necessary treatment to guarantee that their adjustment back into society is a successful one.

As the war in Iraq continues to drag on, and with our country continuing to send military personnel to Afghanistan, the military has been overwhelmed with returning soldiers suffering from mental health problems. Earlier this month, Col. Elspeth Ritchie, psychiatry consultant to the Army surgeon general, stated "as the war has gone on, PTSD and other psychological effects of war have increased. The number of mental health workers that was adequate for a peacetime military is not adequate for a nation that's been at war."

Mr. Chairman, according to surveys conducted of troops in Iraq, 15-20 percent of Army soldiers have demonstrated signs of post-traumatic stress. Symptoms of this serious disorder include nightmares, flashbacks, emotional detachment, dissociation, insomnia, loss of appetite, memory loss, clinical depression, and anxiety. One year after returning from combat, approximately 35 percent of soldiers are seeking some kind of mental health treatment. Among soldiers still stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan, many incidents of abuse, including killings and rapes by U.S. soldiers, have been attributed to ethics lapses caused by the strain of combat.

Mr. Chairman, last Thursday, the Department of Defense released a report that stated "current efforts fall significantly short" in providing help for troops. Further, this report found that the psychological health needs of America's military service members, their families and their survivors pose a daunting and growing challenge to the Department of Defense.

I urge adoption of my amendment. And I thank the Chairman for his fine work in bringing this exceptional legislation to the House floor where it should receive an overwhelmingly favorable vote.

Mr. Edwards: Mr. Chairman, will the gentlewoman yield?

Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas: I yield to the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. Edwards: Mr. Chairman, I thank the gentlewoman and particularly want to salute her for her strong support for veterans and, in particular, for PTSD and mental health care studies.

As she knows, this bill has a significant increase in funding, historic increase in funding, for VA medical care, and we have directed in the report of the bill that a significant part of that money should go to PTSD and mental health care services.

So I hope with the funding levels in this bill we will have opportunities to provide the kind of expanded service that the gentlewoman has spoken about so eloquently.

Ms. Jackson-Lee of Texas: Mr. Chairman, I thank the distinguished gentleman, and I ask unanimous consent to withdraw my amendment.

The Chairman: Is there objection to the request of the gentlewoman from Texas?

There was no objection.

Amendment Offered by Mr. Upton

Mr. Upton: Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

The Chairman: The Clerk will designate the amendment.

The text of the amendment is as follows:

Amendment offered by Mr. Upton:

At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the following:

Sec. 409. None of the funds made available in this Act may be used to purchase light bulbs unless the light bulbs have the "ENERGY STAR" designation.

The Chairman: Pursuant to the order of the House of today, the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.

The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Michigan.

Mr. Upton: Mr. Chairman, I first want to thank Chairman Edwards and Ranking Member Wicker, Mr. Obey and others, particularly my coauthor, Ms. Harman, on this amendment.

As Congress tackles climate change legislation and examines ways to promote energy efficiency, it is so important that the Federal Government set a proper example, taking the lead in commonsense conservation measures. Some would say this is an amendment that sets a shining example for the rest of the country.

The Federal Government has to be the world's largest consumer of light bulbs, and with this amendment, we will likely save American taxpayers probably as much as $100 million.

Why Energy Star light bulbs? Well, current incandescent bulbs on store shelves are obsolete, and they're highly inefficient. In fact, only 10 percent of the energy consumed by each bulb is for light, with 90 percent wasted on unnecessary heat.

Energy Star light bulbs use about 75 percent less energy than the standard incandescent bulbs, as they last as much as 10 times longer. In fact, if every house in the Nation switched to Energy Star bulbs, we would have the potential to annually reduce the emissions equivalent of 80 coal-burning plants each year, saving 65 billion kilowatts.

This amendment will make the Federal Government a shining example of how we can conserve energy, one light bulb at a time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Edwards: Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

The Chairman: The gentleman from Texas is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. Edwards: Mr. Chairman, if my colleagues will excuse the pun, I want to thank the gentleman for enlightening the VA and the DOD on this issue. I'm glad to support this amendment. It is an important issue, and we can set a good example for the country by passing it.

The Chairman: The question is on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Upton).

The amendment was agreed to.

Mr. Edwards: Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

The Chairman: The gentleman from Texas is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. Edwards: Mr. Chairman, it is now my pleasure to yield to the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Ortiz), a valued leader on armed services and veterans issues.

Mr. Ortiz: Mr. Chairman, on behalf of our south Texas veterans, we appreciate the committee's concern regarding access to inpatient and outpatient care for our far south Texas veterans.

Let me say I compliment you, Mr. Chairman, for doing such a great job and for having way down in your heart the care of the veterans that served in many, many wars, not only in Iraq and Afghanistan.

These veterans have to travel upwards of 6 hours each way to receive inpatient care, and many times they have their appointments cancelled. As you know, the VA's currently finalizing a study on options to provide inpatient and outpatient specialty care which will be out this July.

And Mr. Chairman, as you know, this war has resulted in many casualties. We've had over 46 young men killed in this war. We have lost more, between Chairman Hinojosa and I, 46 soldiers. In addition, we've had many more soldiers maimed and injured; and what we would like to see, Mr. Chairman, would the committee work with us to move the issue of a veterans hospital in south Texas forward.

Mr. Edwards: I thank the chairman for his strong leadership over the years on behalf of the veterans in south Texas.

With that, I'd like to yield to my colleague and close friend, Mr. Hinojosa.

Mr. Hinojosa: Mr. Chairman, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 2642, and I also rise on behalf of myself, the Honorable Congressman Ortiz and the Honorable Congressman Cuellar and the more than 75 veterans who in the fall of 2005 walked in the hot sun a long, long 250 miles from Edinburg, Texas, to San Antonio to raise the level of awareness of a badly needed veterans hospital in south Texas.

I want to sincerely thank Chairman Edwards for your outstanding leadership and for the past support for veterans affairs. I look forward to working with you to accomplish what naysayers have said, that it will never get done.

And finally, I want to emphasize that our south Texas veterans and the south Texas congressional delegation have been fighting for a veterans hospital for more than 20 years. While the VA has a contract for a few hospital beds, those 10 beds are not enough to take care of the more than 75,000 veterans living in the eight county region. Once the VA releases their report next month, will the chairman work with us to address any shortfalls that are identified for inpatient care in south Texas?

Mr. Edwards: Reclaiming my time, Mr. Chairman, let me say the answer to that is yes. As a native son of south Texas, as someone who grew up admiring Dr. Hector Garcia, the great World War II veteran who founded the American GI forum as you know, I have always stood in awe of the service of south Texans and Hispanic Americans as well in south Texas to our country in time of war and in time of our greatest need.

While a veterans hospital in south Texas would have to be authorized by the VA authorization committee, if that were to be done, certainly again as a native son of south Texas, it'd be a dream come true for all of us who care about that part of the country to see a hospital built.

The data will have to be there. The report should be a very important one coming in July, but until that report comes, let me just say in the meantime that veterans all across south Texas have benefited from the hard work of Mr. Hinojosa and our colleague Mr. Ortiz, and they're getting services today they wouldn't have gotten without your help, and I salute you both for that effort.

Amendment Offered by Mr. Pearce

Mr. Pearce: Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

The Chairman: The Clerk will designate the amendment.

The text of the amendment is as follows:

Amendment offered by Mr. Pearce:

At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the following:

Sec. __. None of the funds made available in this Act may be used to reimburse employees of the Department of Veterans Affairs for official travel expenses until the Secretary of Veterans Affairs increases the mileage reimbursement rate payable under section 111 of title 38, United States Code, to individuals traveling to or from a Department facility so that such rate is equal to the rate payable to Federal Government employees traveling on official business in privately-owned vehicles, as prescribed by the Administrator of General Services under section 5707(b) of title 5, United States Code.

The Chairman: Pursuant to the order of the House of today, the gentleman from New Mexico (Mr. Pearce) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.

Mr. Edwards: Mr. Chairman, I reserve a point of order on the gentleman's amendment.

The Chairman: A point of order is reserved.

The Chair recognizes the gentleman from New Mexico.

Mr. Pearce: Mr. Chairman, we call our veterans from World War II America's greatest generation but our actions don't always hold water.

I rise today to offer an amendment to the Military Construction- Veterans Affairs appropriations bill which would ensure veterans are appropriately reimbursed for mileage travel to and from medical facilities in New Mexico or large rural States.

Many times people in my county, 305 miles away from Albuquerque one way, are directed to drive to Albuquerque. These people, many are like my father in their 80s, they cannot travel 5½ hours one way. It's unthinkable that we do that. It's unconscionable that we only pay them 11 cents a mile.

From Hobbs to Albuquerque, 305 miles one way, the reimbursement is $34. I would like to ask anyone in this chamber how they would expect to drive 305 miles for $34, but even worse, the Veterans' Administration takes a fee when they get there. Approximately $7.50 of the $34 is then sacrificed to the VA.

No allowance is made to sleep overnight. No allowance is made for hotel. No allowance is made for any circumstance except turning around and driving another 5½ hours to get back home. We are reimbursing all that driving at 11 cents a mile.

Meanwhile many of us in government jobs, all Federal officials are reimbursed at 48½ cents per mile because that's the going rate. That's the rate that we should be paying, and yet to America's Greatest Generation, we're paying 11 cents a mile.

Now, the director of the service, the Secretary, could change this by regulation, and all people on this House floor agree that it should be changed. Back in March of 2007, March of this year, we passed the Wounded Warrior Act, H.R. 1538, by a vote of 426-0, where we mandated that the Secretary actually do this.

But we also know in Washington that we play games with people, we play games with our veterans. So that bill now is trapped over in the Senate.

What my amendment simply does is say we would like for the Secretary not to pay anyone mileage from this bill, from H.R. 2642, until he remedies the situation with our veterans. Pay them what the mileage costs them to drive. We are mandating that they go that far to the facilities. That's unthinkable, but it's unconscionable that we are paying only 11 cents a mile.

So while we are claiming America's generation, America's World War II veterans, to be our Greatest Generation, let's begin to act with honor and reimburse them the way that we should. My amendment would ensure that.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

Point of Order

Mr. Edwards: Mr. Chairman, I rise to make a point of order.

Mr. Chairman, let me just say we all know that 11 cents per mile is inadequate. We need to deal with it. I don't think this amendment is the right way and the right time to do that.

Mr. Chairman, I would like to make a point of order against the amendment because it proposes to change existing law and constitutes legislation in an appropriation bill and therefore violates clause 2 of rule XXI.

The rule states in pertinent part: an amendment to a general appropriation bill shall not be in order if changing an existing law imposes additional duties.

The Chairman: Does any other Member wish to be heard on the point of order?

Mr. Pearce: Mr. Chairman, I would say to the chairman that I understand and accept that, but I would point out to the chairman that we have legislated this way through appropriations before, and we'll do it again.

I would simply make the point that the point of order today says we will not do what our seniors and what our veterans deserve for us to do one more time.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time and graciously accept the gentleman's comments in his point of order and thank him for his work on this bill.

The Chairman: The amendment imposes a legislative condition on the availability of funds, namely, the increasing of a reimbursement rate not required under current law.

As such, the amendment constitutes legislation under clause 2 of rule XXI.

The point of order is sustained.

Mr. Edwards: Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word, and I yield to the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Donnelly).

Mr. Donnelly:Mr. Chairman, I want to commend you on this bill and what a tremendous job your committee has done in producing this. I want to make sure that the Veterans Administration uses the added resources that you have provided to help reduce the disability claims that we have seen getting backlogged. We need to reduce that backlog in the most efficient manner possible.

Mr. Chairman, I strongly support this underlying bill. For the first time in years, Congress is going to provide the kind of resources the VA should have in order to provide the level of health care and customer service that America's veterans have earned through their service.

I commend you and the committee for drafting a bill that we can all be proud of and that works for our veterans.

Today, America's disabled veterans must wait an average of almost 6 months for the VA to make a decision on their initial claim. Right now, as we speak, almost half a million veterans have pending claims that have already exceeded that 6-month time period, a period of time, I believe, that is far, far too long.

With hundreds of thousands of returning veterans from Iraq and Afghanistan, we can only expect the demand for services to rise. This is an unacceptable situation, as you well know, Mr. Chairman, and it's a result from two occurrences, insufficient resources at the VA to process claims and a system that fundamentally needs to be improved. We commend you because this bill starts to address the funding issues that we face.

H.R. 2642 provides invaluable new resources to address the VA's deficiencies, including funding for over 1,000 additional claim workers. I want to make sure the VA is doing everything possible in considering every opportunity to use the funds you are using in a wise fashion.

The Government Accountability Office has made eight commonsense recommendations to how it can improve the disability claims process at the VA. This report, most recently reiterated on May 25, is a report that deals with our wounded warriors and how to take care of them better. It has eight strategic ways to fix the disability claims situation.

However, according to the GAO, the VA is not moving on these eight recommendations. I think the Congress should know why the VA is not moving forward with these, and if they do move forward, they should let us know when and how they are going to implement these recommendations. We should require the VA to report back to Congress on what it is doing to implement the GAO recommendations and how they can improve this process.

Mr. Chairman, we are grateful. The veterans of Indiana's Second District are grateful for the increase in funds, and we ask your help in making sure that the VA uses those funds in a wise way and reduces the disability claims backlog.

Mr. Edwards: Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time, let me thank Mr. Donnelly for his leadership and seeing that we did put additional funding in this bill to hire, as he mentioned, over 1,000 new VA case workers, actually over 1,100 VA case workers to reduce that absolutely unacceptable backlog of handling veterans cases.

I also look forward to working with the gentleman in the months ahead to see how we can implement the GAO recommendations, to see we not only have additional money for the VA to reduce that management backlog, but to see that we are putting in place management practices to reduce it even further.

This is not the first time the gentleman has spoken out on behalf of veterans on this problem. I thank him for his continued leadership on this effort.

Mr. Donnelly:I thank you for your leadership and your wisdom on this issue.

Mr. Edwards: Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

The Chairman: The gentleman is recognized for 5 minutes.

Mr. Edwards: At this time I would like to yield to my colleague and friend, a distinguished veteran who comes to this Congress as the highest ranking enlisted officer to have ever served in Congress, the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Walz).

Mr. Walz of Minnesota: Thank you to the distinguished colleague and gentleman from Texas.

Mr. Chairman, having been a member of our armed services for over 20 years and a member of many of our veterans service organizations for a long time and now as a representative of tens of thousands of veterans, I can assure you that no one has been a bigger supporter and fought harder for veterans than the gentleman from Texas.

It is an honor to stand here as we have crafted, I believe, under his leadership, one of the best pieces of legislation that has ever come through the House. I thank you for that, Mr. Chairman.

Having represented the district of southern Minnesota that includes the Mayo Clinic, the efficiency and quality of care in health care services is of deep concern to me.

One of the areas that I am concerned with, and one that I look forward to working with the chairman and his committee on, is how we figure out how to make sure that VA and the Department of Defense are fully cooperating in the efficient use of their health care resources.

In the past, the VA and the DOD have been encouraged by Congress to do the best they can to make sure they share those resources effectively. Some great examples of successes come out of that. Joint purchasing of pharmaceuticals has been one of those where we have seen great savings for our Nation, great savings for our veterans.

A year ago, the Government Accountability Office found that the VA and DOD are, indeed, making progress. But they also made some suggestions where they said standards must be developed to measure that performance in order to determine whether they are doing an adequate job of sharing their health care resources.

A year later yet we haven't seen, even though DOD and VA have agreed, we haven't seen them implement some of those recommendations.

Once, again, I applaud the chairman for a great piece of legislation, very thoughtful. I applaud my friends on other side of the aisle for great cooperation, thoughtful care, and an absolute commitment, a moral commitment to taking care of our veterans.

I look forward to working with you on this issue in the future to make sure that we are not only taking care of our veterans at the highest quality standard; we are also safeguarding those precious resources of the American taxpayers to make sure we are not duplicating services when we don't have to and to make sure that we are maximizing our effect.

Mr. Edwards: Mr. Chairman, reclaiming my time. I want to thank the gentleman for his distinguished military service to our country. Veterans of America ought to be grateful to having someone like you with your experience on the VA Committee.

You have taken a leadership position this year. Particularly we look forward to working with you in getting the VA and DOD to work together. There needs to be a seamless transition as someone moves from active duty or is a member of the Guard and Reserves into the VA health care system or the VA benefits system. We know we will have a better system because of your leadership, and we will work with you.

Mr. Chairman, I yield to my colleague and very close friend from Texas (Mr. Gene Green) for a unanimous consent request.

(Mr. Gene Green of Texas asked and was given permission to revise and extend his remarks.)

Mr. Gene Green of Texas: Mr. Chairman, I rise in support of this appropriations bill and thank Chairman Obey, Chairman Edwards, and our ranking members for their work in setting a new standard for funding our veterans program.

Mr. Chairman, I rise today in support of this appropriations bill, and to congratulate Chairman Edwards and Ranking Member and Chairman Obey for their work in crafting this bill that sets a new standard for funding veterans' programs.

For the first time since the veterans' service organizations began producing their independent budget, Congress has met and even exceeded their request in this bill. The bill appropriates a total of $87.7 billion for veterans' programs, which marks a $6.7 billion increase in funding for the Department of Veterans Affairs--the largest increase in veterans' health care funding in the 77-year history of the VA.

This level of funding lets veterans, our troops, and their families know this Congress is going to make sure the promises we made to the men and women who fight for our country will be fulfilled, even after they are done with their service. The wait times at VA medical facilities have increased in recent years; the number of veterans has increased and will continue to grow in the coming years as service members return from Iraq and Afghanistan; and unspeakable conditions at Walter Reed uncovered earlier this year all require attention, and this bill ensures there is funding to address these problems.

During a time of war, we need to demonstrate a strong commitment not only to our troops currently serving, but to those who have returned from service and those who fought to defend our country in previous conflicts. I would also like to offer my support for a project request to provide funding for a fire station at Ellington Field, and I hope the chairman will give it strong consideration as projects are funded.

The existing fire station at Ellington field is in a rapidly deteriorating condition and does not meet OSHA or Air Force standards. Roof leaks and lack of insulation result in equipment being destroyed and extremely high operating costs. New firefighting apparatus must be parked outside the station because they will not fit into the truck bays.

This fire station supports all flying operations at Ellington Field including Air National Guard, Army National Guard, U.S. Coast Guard, NASA, and civilian aircraft. Construction of a new fire station at Ellington is critical for the Texas Air National Guard and all units stationed at Ellington Field.

Mr. Chairman, I again applaud the leadership from the chairmen who drafted this bill, and I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this legislation.

Mr. Edwards: Mr. Chairman, I move to strike the last word.

These will be my last remarks of the day. We have had a lot of debate here over the last 4 hours.

I just want to say that we are facing a historic moment. Never before in the history of this Congress have we voted on the floor of this House to increase veterans health care spending by the level we will in just a few moments.

I want to thank all those who have been part of it. I want to salute Speaker Pelosi for having said we must keep our promises to our veterans. I want to salute Chairman Obey; Congressman Spratt, the chairman of the Budget Committee; Mr. Filner, the chairman of the Veterans' Affairs Committee; as well as Mr. Wicker and the others who have worked on this in a bipartisan basis.

As the son of a World War II veteran, son of a dad I love greatly for his service to our country, as my mentor was Congressman Olin B. "Tiger" Teague, known as Mr. Veteran in Congress for over 32 years, his service here, what an honor and privilege, and humbling privilege it is to me to work with us here today to pass this historic bill for America's veterans.

We know we can never repay our debt of gratitude, but this bill today will be a great down payment on that debt, and ultimately it will be a show of respect for those who have sacrificed so much for the American family.

Announcement by the Chairman

The Chairman: Pursuant to clause 6 of rule XVIII, proceedings will now resume on those amendments on which further proceedings were postponed, in the following order:

• Amendment by Mr. Hayes of North Carolina.
• Amendment by Mr. Blumenauer of Oregon.
• Amendment No. 17 by Mr. Price of Georgia.
• Amendment by Mr. Moran of Kansas.
• Amendment No. 1 by Mr. Garrett of New Jersey.
• Amendment by Mrs. Musgrave of Colorado.

The Chair will reduce to 2 minutes the time for any electronic vote after the first vote in this series.

Amendment Offered by Mr. Hayes

The Chairman: The unfinished business is the demand for a recorded vote on the amendment offered by the gentleman from North Carolina (Mr. Hayes) on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the noes prevailed by voice vote.

The Clerk will redesignate the amendment.

The Clerk redesignated the amendment.

The Chairman: A recorded vote has been requested. Those in support of the request for a recorded vote will rise and be counted.

Point of Order

Mr. Dicks: Mr. Chairman, point of order. I don't see a sufficient second, Mr. Chairman. I think we have been going automatically assuming. I see staff people on both sides. I do not see Members.

The Chairman: Does the gentleman wish to have a quorum call first?

Mr. Dicks: I just want to make sure that everybody sat down and we had the Members stand up.

The Chairman: A sufficient number having risen, a recorded vote is ordered. Members will record their votes by electronic device.

The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 110, noes 304, not voting 23, as follows:

Roll No. 492 - On Agreeing to the Hayes Amendment
AYES--110
Alexander	Arcuri	Bachus	Baker	Barrett (SC)
Bartlett (MD)	Barton (TX)	Bilbray	Bishop (UT)	Blackburn
Blunt	Boehner	Bordallo	Boyda (KS)	Brown (SC)
Brown-Waite, Ginny	Burton (IN)	Buyer	Calvert	Cannon
Cantor	Carney	Chabot	Conaway	Cubin
Culberson	Davis, David	Davis, Tom	Deal (GA)	Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.	Donnelly	Drake	Duncan	Etheridge
Fallin	Forbes	Fortuno	Fossella	Foxx
Franks (AZ)	Gerlach	Gingrey	Gohmert	Goode
Goodlatte	Granger	Hall (TX)	Hastert	Hayes
Heller	Herger	Hunter	Jindal	Johnson (IL)
Johnson, Sam	Jones (NC)	Jordan	Keller	Kingston
Kline (MN)	LaTourette	Lewis (KY)	Linder	Lucas
Manzullo	Marchant	McCarthy (CA)	McCotter	McCrery
McIntyre	Mica	Miller (FL)	Moran (KS)	Musgrave
Myrick	Neugebauer	Nunes	Pearce	Pence
Peterson (PA)	Pitts	Platts	Pryce (OH)	Putnam
Radanovich	Rehberg	Rogers (AL)	Rogers (KY)	Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher	Ros-Lehtinen	Sali	Shadegg	Shuler
Shuster	Smith (NE)	Smith (TX)	Souder	Sullivan
Terry	Tiberi	Turner	Wamp	Watt
Weller	Whitfield	Wilson (SC)	Wolf	Young (AK)
NOES--304
Abercrombie	Ackerman	Aderholt	Akin	Allen
Altmire	Andrews	Baca	Bachmann	Baird
Baldwin	Barrow	Bean	Becerra	Berkley
Berman	Berry	Biggert	Bilirakis	Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)	Blumenauer	Bono	Boozman	Boren
Boswell	Boucher	Boustany	Boyd (FL)	Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)	Brown, Corrine	Burgess	Butterfield	Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)	Capito	Capps	Capuano	Cardoza
Carnahan	Carson	Carter	Castle	Castor
Chandler	Christensen	Clarke	Clay	Cleaver
Clyburn	Cohen	Cole (OK)	Conyers	Cooper
Costa	Costello	Courtney	Cramer	Crenshaw
Crowley	Cuellar	Cummings	Davis (AL)	Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)	Davis (KY)	Davis, Lincoln	DeFazio	DeGette
Delahunt	DeLauro	Dent	Dicks	Dingell
Doggett	Doolittle	Doyle	Dreier	Edwards
Ehlers	Ellison	Ellsworth	Emanuel	Emerson
Engel	English (PA)	Everett	Farr	Fattah
Feeney	Ferguson	Filner	Flake	Fortenberry
Frank (MA)	Frelinghuysen	Gallegly	Garrett (NJ)	Giffords
Gilchrest	Gillibrand	Gillmor	Gonzalez	Gordon
Graves	Green, Al	Green, Gene	Grijalva	Hall (NY)
Hare	Hastings (FL)	Hensarling	Herseth Sandlin	Hill
Hinchey	Hinojosa	Hirono	Hobson	Hodes
Hoekstra	Holden	Holt	Honda	Hooley
Hoyer	Hulshof	Inglis (SC)	Inslee	Israel
Issa	Jackson (IL)	Jackson-Lee (TX)	Jefferson	Johnson (GA)
Johnson, E. B.	Kagen	Kanjorski	Kaptur	Kennedy
Kildee	Kilpatrick	Kind	King (IA)	King (NY)
Kirk	Klein (FL)	Knollenberg	Kucinich	Kuhl (NY)
Lamborn	Lampson	Langevin	Lantos	Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)	Latham	Lee	Levin	Lewis (CA)
Lewis (GA)	Lipinski	LoBiondo	Loebsack	Lowey
Lungren, Daniel E.	Lynch	Mack	Mahoney (FL)	Maloney (NY)
Markey	Marshall	Matheson	Matsui	McCarthy (NY)
McCaul (TX)	McCollum (MN)	McDermott	McGovern	McHugh
McKeon	McMorris Rodgers	McNerney	McNulty	Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)	Melancon	Michaud	Miller (MI)	Miller (NC)
Miller, Gary	Mitchell	Mollohan	Moore (KS)	Moore (WI)
Moran (VA)	Murphy (CT)	Murphy, Patrick	Murphy, Tim	Murtha
Nadler	Napolitano	Neal (MA)	Norton	Oberstar
Obey	Olver	Ortiz	Pallone	Pascrell
Pastor	Payne	Perlmutter	Peterson (MN)	Petri
Poe	Pomeroy	Porter	Price (GA)	Price (NC)
Rahall	Ramstad	Rangel	Regula	Reichert
Renzi	Reyes	Reynolds	Rodriguez	Roskam
Ross	Rothman	Roybal-Allard	Royce	Ruppersberger
Rush	Ryan (OH)	Ryan (WI)	Salazar	Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta	Sarbanes	Saxton	Schakowsky	Schiff
Schmidt	Schwartz	Scott (GA)	Scott (VA)	Sensenbrenner
Serrano	Sestak	Shays	Shea-Porter	Sherman
Shimkus	Simpson	Sires	Skelton	Slaughter
Smith (NJ)	Smith (WA)	Snyder	Solis	Space
Spratt	Stark	Stearns	Sutton	Tanner
Tauscher	Taylor	Thompson (CA)	Thompson (MS)	Thornberry
Tiahrt	Tierney	Towns	Udall (CO)	Udall (NM)
Upton	Van Hollen	Velazquez	Visclosky	Walberg
Walden (OR)	Walsh (NY)	Walz (MN)	Wasserman Schultz	Waters
Watson	Waxman	Weiner	Welch (VT)	Weldon (FL)
Wexler	Wicker	Wilson (NM)	Wilson (OH)	Woolsey
Wu	Wynn	Yarmuth	Young (FL)
NOT VOTING--23
Bonner	Brady (TX)	Buchanan	Coble	Davis, Jo Ann
Eshoo	Faleomavaega	Gutierrez	Harman	Hastings (WA)
Higgins	Jones (OH)	LaHood	Lofgren, Zoe	McHenry
Meehan	Miller, George	Paul	Pickering	Sessions
Stupak	Tancredo	Westmoreland

Messrs. Hobson, Ryan of Wisconsin, Altmire, Aderholt, Akin, Tiahrt, Boozman, Mrs. Mcmorris Rodgers, and Mrs. Bachmann changed their vote from "aye" to "no."

Messrs. Fossella, Watt and Rohrabacher, and Mrs. Boyda of Kansas changed their vote from "no" to "aye."

So the amendment was rejected.

The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

Amendment Offered by Mr. Blumenauer

The Chairman: The unfinished business is the demand for a recorded vote on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the noes prevailed by voice vote.

The Clerk will redesignate the amendment.

The Clerk redesignated the amendment.

Recorded Vote

The Chairman: A recorded vote has been demanded.

A recorded vote was ordered.

The Chairman: This will be a 2-minute vote.

The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 68, noes 347, not voting 22, as follows:

Roll No. 493 - Blumenauer Amendment
AYES--68
Abercrombie	Baird	Baldwin	Barrow	Barton (TX)
Bean	Berman	Bilbray	Blumenauer	Brown-Waite, Ginny
Campbell (CA)	Capps	Cardoza	Clay	Cleaver
Costa	Crowley	Davis (IL)	DeFazio	DeGette
Delahunt	Doggett	Duncan	Ellison	Farr
Feeney	Foxx	Gilchrest	Gordon	Herseth Sandlin
Hinchey	Honda	Hooley	Inslee	Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)	Johnson (IL)	Kingston	Lantos	Lewis (GA)
Manzullo	Matsui	McDermott	McGovern	Mitchell
Moore (WI)	Napolitano	Pascrell	Payne	Pitts
Roybal-Allard	Sanchez, Linda T.	Sanchez, Loretta	Slaughter	Smith (WA)
Snyder	Stark	Thompson (CA)	Tierney	Velazquez
Walden (OR)	Walsh (NY)	Wasserman Schultz	Waters	Waxman
Weiner	Welch (VT)	Wu
NOES--347
Ackerman	Aderholt	Akin	Alexander	Allen
Altmire	Andrews	Arcuri	Baca	Bachmann
Bachus	Baker	Barrett (SC)	Bartlett (MD)	Becerra
Berkley	Berry	Biggert	Bilirakis	Bishop (GA)
Bishop (NY)	Bishop (UT)	Blackburn	Blunt	Boehner
Bono	Boozman	Bordallo	Boren	Boswell
Boucher	Boustany	Boyd (FL)	Boyda (KS)	Brady (PA)
Braley (IA)	Brown (SC)	Brown, Corrine	Burgess	Burton (IN)
Butterfield	Buyer	Calvert	Camp (MI)	Cannon
Cantor	Capito	Capuano	Carnahan	Carney
Carson	Carter	Castle	Castor	Chabot
Chandler	Christensen	Clarke	Clyburn	Cohen
Cole (OK)	Conaway	Conyers	Cooper	Costello
Courtney	Cramer	Crenshaw	Cubin	Cuellar
Culberson	Cummings	Davis (AL)	Davis (CA)	Davis (KY)
Davis, David	Davis, Lincoln	Davis, Tom	Deal (GA)	DeLauro
Dent	Diaz-Balart, L.	Diaz-Balart, M.	Dicks	Dingell
Donnelly	Doolittle	Doyle	Drake	Dreier
Edwards	Ehlers	Ellsworth	Emanuel	Emerson
Engel	English (PA)	Etheridge	Everett	Fallin
Fattah	Ferguson	Filner	Flake	Forbes
Fortenberry	Fortuno	Fossella	Frank (MA)	Franks (AZ)
Frelinghuysen	Gallegly	Garrett (NJ)	Gerlach	Giffords
Gillibrand	Gillmor	Gingrey	Gohmert	Goode
Goodlatte	Granger	Graves	Green, Al	Green, Gene
Grijalva	Hall (NY)	Hall (TX)	Hare	Hastert
Hastings (FL)	Hayes	Heller	Hensarling	Herger
Higgins	Hill	Hinojosa	Hirono	Hobson
Hodes	Hoekstra	Holden	Holt	Hoyer
Hulshof	Hunter	Inglis (SC)	Israel	Issa
Jefferson	Jindal	Johnson (GA)	Johnson, E. B.	Johnson, Sam
Jones (NC)	Jones (OH)	Jordan	Kagen	Kanjorski
Kaptur	Keller	Kennedy	Kildee	Kilpatrick
Kind	King (IA)	King (NY)	Kirk	Klein (FL)
Kline (MN)	Knollenberg	Kucinich	Kuhl (NY)	Lamborn
Lampson	Langevin	Larsen (WA)	Larson (CT)	Latham
LaTourette	Lee	Levin	Lewis (CA)	Lewis (KY)
Linder	Lipinski	LoBiondo	Loebsack	Lowey
Lucas	Lungren, Daniel E.	Lynch	Mack	Mahoney (FL)
Maloney (NY)	Marchant	Markey	Marshall	Matheson
McCarthy (CA)	McCarthy (NY)	McCaul (TX)	McCollum (MN)	McCotter
McCrery	McHugh	McIntyre	McKeon	McMorris Rodgers
McNerney	McNulty	Meek (FL)	Meeks (NY)	Melancon
Mica	Michaud	Miller (FL)	Miller (MI)	Miller (NC)
Miller, Gary	Mollohan	Moore (KS)	Moran (KS)	Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)	Murphy, Patrick	Murphy, Tim	Murtha	Musgrave
Myrick	Nadler	Neal (MA)	Neugebauer	Norton
Nunes	Oberstar	Obey	Olver	Ortiz
Pallone	Pastor	Pearce	Pence	Perlmutter
Peterson (MN)	Peterson (PA)	Petri	Platts	Poe
Pomeroy	Porter	Price (GA)	Price (NC)	Pryce (OH)
Putnam	Radanovich	Rahall	Ramstad	Rangel
Regula	Rehberg	Reichert	Renzi	Reyes
Reynolds	Rodriguez	Rogers (AL)	Rogers (KY)	Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher	Ros-Lehtinen	Roskam	Ross	Rothman
Royce	Ruppersberger	Rush	Ryan (OH)	Ryan (WI)
Salazar	Sali	Sarbanes	Saxton	Schakowsky
Schiff	Schmidt	Schwartz	Scott (GA)	Scott (VA)
Sensenbrenner	Serrano	Sestak	Shadegg	Shays
Shea-Porter	Sherman	Shimkus	Shuler	Shuster
Simpson	Sires	Skelton	Smith (NE)	Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)	Solis	Souder	Space	Spratt
Stearns	Sullivan	Sutton	Tanner	Tauscher
Taylor	Terry	Thompson (MS)	Thornberry	Tiahrt
Tiberi	Towns	Turner	Udall (CO)	Udall (NM)
Upton	Van Hollen	Visclosky	Walberg	Walz (MN)
Wamp	Watson	Watt	Weldon (FL)	Weller
Wexler	Whitfield	Wicker	Wilson (NM)	Wilson (OH)
Wilson (SC)	Wolf	Woolsey	Wynn	Yarmuth
Young (AK)	Young (FL)
NOT VOTING--22
Bonner	Brady (TX)	Buchanan	Coble	Davis, Jo Ann
Eshoo	Faleomavaega	Gonzalez	Gutierrez	Harman
Hastings (WA)	LaHood	Lofgren, Zoe	McHenry	Meehan
Miller, George	Paul	Pickering	Sessions	Stupak
Tancredo	Westmoreland

Announcement by the Chairman

The Chairman (during the vote): Members are advised there are 30 seconds remaining in this vote.

Mr. BilirakiS changed his vote from "aye" to "no."

So the amendment was rejected.

The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

Amendment No. 17 Offered by Mr. Price of Georgia

The Chairman: The unfinished business is the demand for a recorded vote on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Price) on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the noes prevailed by voice vote.

The Clerk will redesignate the amendment.

The Clerk redesignated the amendment.

Recorded Vote

The Chairman: A recorded vote has been demanded.

A recorded vote was ordered.

The Chairman: This will be a 2-minute vote.

The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 154, noes 260, not voting 23, as follows:

Roll No. 494 - Price (GA) Amendment 13
AYES--154
Akin	Alexander	Altmire	Bachmann	Baker
Barrett (SC)	Barrow	Bartlett (MD)	Bilirakis	Blackburn
Blunt	Bono	Boozman	Boren	Boswell
Boustany	Burgess	Burton (IN)	Calvert	Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)	Cannon	Cantor	Capito	Chabot
Cole (OK)	Conaway	Cubin	Culberson	Davis (KY)
Davis, David	Deal (GA)	Dent	Diaz-Balart, L.	Diaz-Balart, M.
Dingell	Doolittle	Drake	Duncan	Ehlers
Emerson	Fallin	Ferguson	Flake	Forbes
Fortuno	Fossella	Foxx	Franks (AZ)	Garrett (NJ)
Gerlach	Gilchrest	Gillmor	Gingrey	Gohmert
Goode	Goodlatte	Graves	Hall (TX)	Hayes
Heller	Hensarling	Hoekstra	Hulshof	Hunter
Inglis (SC)	Jindal	Johnson, Sam	Jones (NC)	Jordan
Keller	King (IA)	King (NY)	Kingston	Kirk
Klein (FL)	Kline (MN)	Kuhl (NY)	Lamborn	Lampson
Latham	Lewis (KY)	LoBiondo	Lucas	Lungren, Daniel E.
Mack	Marchant	Matheson	McCarthy (CA)	McCaul (TX)
McCotter	McCrery	McHugh	McIntyre	McKeon
McMorris Rodgers	McNerney	McNulty	Mica	Miller (FL)
Miller (MI)	Miller, Gary	Murphy, Tim	Musgrave	Myrick
Neugebauer	Pence	Peterson (PA)	Petri	Pitts
Platts	Poe	Porter	Price (GA)	Pryce (OH)
Putnam	Radanovich	Rahall	Ramstad	Regula
Rehberg	Reichert	Renzi	Reynolds	Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)	Rohrabacher	Ros-Lehtinen	Ross	Royce
Ryan (WI)	Sali	Saxton	Schmidt	Sensenbrenner
Shadegg	Shuler	Shuster	Smith (NE)	Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)	Souder	Stearns	Taylor	Tiberi
Upton	Walberg	Wamp	Waters	Weller
Whitfield	Wilson (SC)	Wolf	Young (AK)
NOES--260
Abercrombie	Ackerman	Aderholt	Allen	Andrews
Arcuri	Baca	Bachus	Baird	Baldwin
Barton (TX)	Bean	Becerra	Berkley	Berman
Berry	Biggert	Bilbray	Bishop (GA)	Bishop (NY)
Bishop (UT)	Blumenauer	Boehner	Bordallo	Boucher
Boyd (FL)	Boyda (KS)	Brady (PA)	Braley (IA)	Brown (SC)
Brown, Corrine	Brown-Waite, Ginny	Butterfield	Buyer	Capps
Capuano	Cardoza	Carnahan	Carney	Carson
Carter	Castle	Castor	Chandler	Christensen
Clarke	Clay	Cleaver	Clyburn	Cohen
Conyers	Cooper	Costa	Costello	Courtney
Cramer	Crenshaw	Crowley	Cuellar	Cummings
Davis (AL)	Davis (CA)	Davis (IL)	Davis, Lincoln	Davis, Tom
DeFazio	DeGette	Delahunt	DeLauro	Dicks
Doggett	Donnelly	Doyle	Dreier	Edwards
Ellison	Ellsworth	Emanuel	Engel	English (PA)
Etheridge	Everett	Farr	Fattah	Feeney
Filner	Fortenberry	Frank (MA)	Frelinghuysen	Gallegly
Giffords	Gillibrand	Gonzalez	Gordon	Granger
Green, Al	Green, Gene	Grijalva	Hall (NY)	Hare
Hastert	Hastings (FL)	Herger	Herseth Sandlin	Higgins
Hill	Hinchey	Hinojosa	Hirono	Hobson
Hodes	Holden	Holt	Honda	Hooley
Hoyer	Inslee	Israel	Issa	Jackson (IL)
Jackson-Lee (TX)	Jefferson	Johnson (GA)	Johnson (IL)	Johnson, E. B.
Jones (OH)	Kagen	Kanjorski	Kaptur	Kennedy
Kildee	Kilpatrick	Kind	Knollenberg	Kucinich
Langevin	Lantos	Larsen (WA)	Larson (CT)	LaTourette
Lee	Levin	Lewis (CA)	Lewis (GA)	Linder
Lipinski	Loebsack	Lowey	Lynch	Mahoney (FL)
Maloney (NY)	Manzullo	Markey	Marshall	Matsui
McCarthy (NY)	McCollum (MN)	McDermott	McGovern	Meek (FL)
Meeks (NY)	Michaud	Miller (NC)	Mitchell	Mollohan
Moore (KS)	Moore (WI)	Moran (KS)	Moran (VA)	Murphy (CT)
Murphy, Patrick	Murtha	Nadler	Napolitano	Neal (MA)
Norton	Nunes	Oberstar	Obey	Olver
Ortiz	Pallone	Pascrell	Pastor	Payne
Pearce	Perlmutter	Peterson (MN)	Pomeroy	Price (NC)
Rangel	Reyes	Rodriguez	Rogers (AL)	Roskam
Rothman	Roybal-Allard	Ruppersberger	Rush	Ryan (OH)
Salazar	Sanchez, Linda T.	Sanchez, Loretta	Sarbanes	Schakowsky
Schiff	Schwartz	Scott (GA)	Scott (VA)	Serrano
Sestak	Shays	Shea-Porter	Sherman	Shimkus
Simpson	Sires	Skelton	Slaughter	Smith (WA)
Snyder	Solis	Space	Spratt	Stark
Sutton	Tanner	Tauscher	Terry	Thompson (CA)
Thompson (MS)	Thornberry	Tiahrt	Tierney	Towns
Turner	Udall (CO)	Udall (NM)	Van Hollen	Velazquez
Visclosky	Walden (OR)	Walsh (NY)	Walz (MN)	Wasserman Schultz
Watson	Watt	Waxman	Weiner	Welch (VT)
Weldon (FL)	Wexler	Wicker	Wilson (NM)	Wilson (OH)
Woolsey	Wu	Wynn	Yarmuth	Young (FL)
NOT VOTING--23
Bonner	Brady (TX)	Buchanan	Coble	Davis, Jo Ann
Eshoo	Faleomavaega	Gutierrez	Harman	Hastings (WA)
LaHood	Lofgren, Zoe	McHenry	Meehan	Melancon
Miller, George	Paul	Pickering	Sessions	Stupak
Sullivan	Tancredo	Westmoreland

Announcement by the Chairman

The Chairman (during the vote): Members have 30 seconds remaining on this vote.

So the amendment was rejected.

The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

Amendment Offered by Mr. Moran of Kansas

The Chairman: The unfinished business is the demand for a recorded vote on the amendment offered by the gentleman from Kansas (Mr. Moran) on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the noes prevailed by voice vote.

The Clerk will redesignate the amendment.

The Clerk redesignated the amendment.

Recorded Vote

The Chairman: A recorded vote has been demanded.

A recorded vote was ordered.

The Chairman: This will be a 2-minute vote.

The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 264, noes 152, not voting 21, as follows:

Roll No. 495 - Moran (KS) Amendment
AYES--264
Aderholt	Akin	Alexander	Allen	Altmire
Arcuri	Bachmann	Baker	Barrett (SC)	Barrow
Bartlett (MD)	Barton (TX)	Bean	Berry	Biggert
Bilirakis	Bishop (UT)	Blackburn	Blumenauer	Blunt
Boehner	Bono	Boozman	Boren	Boswell
Boucher	Boustany	Boyda (KS)	Braley (IA)	Brown (SC)
Brown-Waite, Ginny	Burgess	Burton (IN)	Buyer	Calvert
Camp (MI)	Campbell (CA)	Cannon	Capito	Carney
Carson	Carter	Castle	Chabot	Christensen
Cleaver	Cohen	Cole (OK)	Conaway	Cooper
Costa	Costello	Courtney	Cramer	Cubin
Cuellar	Culberson	Davis (AL)	Davis (KY)	Davis, David
Davis, Lincoln	Davis, Tom	Deal (GA)	DeFazio	Delahunt
Dent	Dicks	Donnelly	Doolittle	Drake
Dreier	Duncan	Ehlers	Ellsworth	Emerson
English (PA)	Etheridge	Everett	Fallin	Feeney
Ferguson	Filner	Flake	Forbes	Fortenberry
Fortuno	Fossella	Foxx	Franks (AZ)	Frelinghuysen
Gallegly	Garrett (NJ)	Gerlach	Giffords	Gilchrest
Gillibrand	Gillmor	Gingrey	Gohmert	Goode
Goodlatte	Gordon	Granger	Graves	Hall (NY)
Hall (TX)	Hare	Hastert	Hayes	Heller
Hensarling	Herger	Herseth Sandlin	Hobson	Hodes
Hoekstra	Holt	Hulshof	Hunter	Inglis (SC)
Issa	Jackson-Lee (TX)	Jindal	Johnson (IL)	Johnson, Sam
Jones (NC)	Jordan	Kagen	Kaptur	Keller
Kildee	King (IA)	King (NY)	Kingston	Kirk
Klein (FL)	Kline (MN)	Kucinich	Kuhl (NY)	Lamborn
Lampson	Larsen (WA)	Latham	LaTourette	Lewis (KY)
Linder	LoBiondo	Loebsack	Lucas	Lungren, Daniel E.
Mack	Mahoney (FL)	Manzullo	Marchant	Marshall
Matheson	Matsui	McCarthy (CA)	McCaul (TX)	McCotter
McCrery	McGovern	McHugh	McIntyre	McKeon
McMorris Rodgers	McNerney	McNulty	Meek (FL)	Mica
Michaud	Miller (FL)	Miller (MI)	Miller (NC)	Miller, Gary
Mitchell	Moore (KS)	Moran (KS)	Murphy (CT)	Murphy, Patrick
Murphy, Tim	Musgrave	Myrick	Neugebauer	Pearce
Pence	Perlmutter	Peterson (MN)	Peterson (PA)	Petri
Pitts	Platts	Poe	Pomeroy	Price (GA)
Pryce (OH)	Putnam	Rahall	Ramstad	Regula
Rehberg	Renzi	Reynolds	Rogers (AL)	Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)	Rohrabacher	Ros-Lehtinen	Roskam	Ross
Royce	Ruppersberger	Ryan (WI)	Salazar	Sali
Saxton	Schmidt	Scott (GA)	Scott (VA)	Sensenbrenner
Shadegg	Shays	Shea-Porter	Shimkus	Shuler
Shuster	Simpson	Skelton	Smith (NE)	Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)	Smith (WA)	Solis	Souder	Space
Spratt	Stearns	Sullivan	Terry	Thompson (CA)
Thornberry	Tiahrt	Tiberi	Tierney	Turner
Udall (CO)	Upton	Walberg	Walden (OR)	Walsh (NY)
Walz (MN)	Wamp	Welch (VT)	Weldon (FL)	Weller
Wexler	Whitfield	Wilson (NM)	Wilson (OH)	Wilson (SC)
Wolf	Wynn	Young (AK)	Young (FL)
NOES--152
Abercrombie	Ackerman	Andrews	Baca	Bachus
Baird	Baldwin	Becerra	Berkley	Berman
Bilbray	Bishop (GA)	Bishop (NY)	Bordallo	Boyd (FL)
Brady (PA)	Brown, Corrine	Butterfield	Cantor	Capps
Capuano	Cardoza	Carnahan	Castor	Chandler
Clarke	Clay	Clyburn	Conyers	Crenshaw
Crowley	Cummings	Davis (CA)	Davis (IL)	DeGette
DeLauro	Diaz-Balart, L.	Diaz-Balart, M.	Dingell	Doggett
Doyle	Edwards	Ellison	Emanuel	Engel
Farr	Fattah	Frank (MA)	Gonzalez	Green, Al
Green, Gene	Grijalva	Hastings (FL)	Higgins	Hill
Hinchey	Hinojosa	Hirono	Holden	Honda
Hooley	Hoyer	Inslee	Israel	Jackson (IL)
Jefferson	Johnson (GA)	Johnson, E. B.	Jones (OH)	Kanjorski
Kennedy	Kilpatrick	Kind	Knollenberg	Langevin
Lantos	Larson (CT)	Lee	Levin	Lewis (CA)
Lewis (GA)	Lipinski	Lowey	Lynch	Maloney (NY)
Markey	McCarthy (NY)	McCollum (MN)	McDermott	Meeks (NY)
Melancon	Mollohan	Moore (WI)	Moran (VA)	Murtha
Nadler	Napolitano	Neal (MA)	Norton	Nunes
Oberstar	Obey	Olver	Ortiz	Pallone
Pascrell	Pastor	Payne	Porter	Price (NC)
Radanovich	Rangel	Reichert	Reyes	Rodriguez
Rothman	Roybal-Allard	Rush	Ryan (OH)	Sanchez, Linda T.
Sanchez, Loretta	Sarbanes	Schakowsky	Schiff	Schwartz
Serrano	Sestak	Sherman	Sires	Slaughter
Snyder	Stark	Sutton	Tanner	Tauscher
Taylor	Thompson (MS)	Towns	Udall (NM)	Van Hollen
Velazquez	Visclosky	Wasserman Schultz	Waters	Watson
Watt	Waxman	Weiner	Wicker	Woolsey
Wu	Yarmuth
NOT VOTING--21
Bonner	Brady (TX)	Buchanan	Coble	Davis, Jo Ann
Eshoo	Faleomavaega	Gutierrez	Harman	Hastings (WA)
LaHood	Lofgren, Zoe	McHenry	Meehan	Miller, George
Paul	Pickering	Sessions	Stupak	Tancredo
Westmoreland

Announcement by the Chairman

The Chairman (during the vote): Members have 30 seconds on this vote.

Ms. Giffords changed her vote from "no" to "aye."

So the amendment was agreed to.

The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

Amendment No. 1 Offered by Mr. Garrett of New Jersey

The Chairman: The unfinished business is the demand for a recorded vote on the amendment offered by the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett) on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the noes prevailed by voice vote.

The Clerk will redesignate the amendment.

The Clerk redesignated the amendment.

Recorded Vote

The Chairman: A recorded vote has been demanded.

A recorded vote was ordered.

The Chairman: This will be a 2-minute vote.

The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 206, noes 211, not voting 20, as follows:

Roll No. 496 - Garrett (NJ) Amendment 1
AYES--206
Aderholt	Akin	Alexander	Altmire	Andrews
Arcuri	Bachmann	Baker	Barrett (SC)	Barrow
Bartlett (MD)	Barton (TX)	Bilbray	Bilirakis	Bishop (UT)
Blackburn	Blunt	Boehner	Bono	Boozman
Boren	Boswell	Boustany	Brown (SC)	Brown-Waite, Ginny
Burgess	Burton (IN)	Buyer	Calvert	Camp (MI)
Campbell (CA)	Cannon	Cantor	Capito	Carney
Carson	Carter	Castle	Chabot	Cole (OK)
Conaway	Cooper	Costello	Cubin	Culberson
Cummings	Davis (KY)	Davis, David	Davis, Lincoln	Deal (GA)
DeFazio	Dent	Diaz-Balart, L.	Diaz-Balart, M.	Doolittle
Drake	Ehlers	Emerson	English (PA)	Fallin
Feeney	Ferguson	Forbes	Fortenberry	Fortuno
Fossella	Foxx	Franks (AZ)	Frelinghuysen	Gallegly
Garrett (NJ)	Gerlach	Giffords	Gillibrand	Gillmor
Gingrey	Gohmert	Goode	Goodlatte	Granger
Graves	Hall (NY)	Hall (TX)	Hayes	Hensarling
Herger	Hill	Hobson	Hoekstra	Holt
Hooley	Hulshof	Hunter	Inglis (SC)	Issa
Jindal	Johnson, Sam	Jordan	Keller	King (IA)
King (NY)	Kingston	Kirk	Klein (FL)	Kline (MN)
Kucinich	Kuhl (NY)	Lamborn	Lampson	Latham
LaTourette	Lewis (KY)	Linder	Lipinski	LoBiondo
Lucas	Lungren, Daniel E.	Mack	Mahoney (FL)	Manzullo
Marchant	Marshall	Matheson	McCaul (TX)	McCotter
McCrery	McHugh	McIntyre	McKeon	McMorris Rodgers
McNulty	Melancon	Mica	Miller (FL)	Miller (MI)
Miller, Gary	Mitchell	Moran (KS)	Murphy, Tim	Musgrave
Myrick	Nadler	Neugebauer	Nunes	Pallone
Pascrell	Pearce	Pence	Peterson (PA)	Petri
Pitts	Platts	Poe	Price (GA)	Pryce (OH)
Putnam	Rahall	Ramstad	Rangel	Regula
Rehberg	Reichert	Renzi	Reynolds	Rogers (KY)
Rogers (MI)	Rohrabacher	Ros-Lehtinen	Roskam	Rothman
Royce	Ruppersberger	Ryan (WI)	Sali	Saxton
Schmidt	Sestak	Shadegg	Shays	Shimkus
Shuler	Shuster	Simpson	Smith (NE)	Smith (NJ)
Smith (TX)	Souder	Space	Sullivan	Tanner
Terry	Thompson (MS)	Thornberry	Tiberi	Turner
Upton	Walberg	Wamp	Welch (VT)	Weller
Wexler	Whitfield	Wilson (NM)	Wilson (SC)	Wolf
Yarmuth
NOES--211
Abercrombie	Ackerman	Allen	Baca	Bachus
Baird	Baldwin	Bean	Becerra	Berkley
Berman	Berry	Biggert	Bishop (GA)	Bishop (NY)
Blumenauer	Bordallo	Boucher	Boyd (FL)	Boyda (KS)
Brady (PA)	Braley (IA)	Brown, Corrine	Butterfield	Capps
Capuano	Cardoza	Carnahan	Castor	Chandler
Christensen	Clarke	Clay	Cleaver	Clyburn
Cohen	Conyers	Costa	Courtney	Cramer
Crenshaw	Crowley	Cuellar	Davis (AL)	Davis (CA)
Davis (IL)	Davis, Tom	DeGette	Delahunt	DeLauro
Dicks	Dingell	Doggett	Donnelly	Doyle
Dreier	Duncan	Edwards	Ellison	Ellsworth
Emanuel	Engel	Etheridge	Everett	Farr
Fattah	Filner	Flake	Frank (MA)	Gilchrest
Gonzalez	Gordon	Green, Al	Green, Gene	Grijalva
Hare	Harman	Hastert	Hastings (FL)	Heller
Herseth Sandlin	Higgins	Hinchey	Hinojosa	Hirono
Hodes	Holden	Honda	Hoyer	Inslee
Israel	Jackson (IL)	Jackson-Lee (TX)	Jefferson	Johnson (GA)
Johnson (IL)	Johnson, E. B.	Jones (NC)	Jones (OH)	Kagen
Kanjorski	Kaptur	Kennedy	Kildee	Kilpatrick
Kind	Knollenberg	Langevin	Lantos	Larsen (WA)
Larson (CT)	Lee	Levin	Lewis (CA)	Lewis (GA)
Loebsack	Lowey	Lynch	Maloney (NY)	Markey
Matsui	McCarthy (CA)	McCarthy (NY)	McCollum (MN)	McDermott
McGovern	McNerney	Meek (FL)	Meeks (NY)	Michaud
Miller (NC)	Mollohan	Moore (KS)	Moore (WI)	Moran (VA)
Murphy (CT)	Murphy, Patrick	Murtha	Napolitano	Neal (MA)
Norton	Oberstar	Obey	Olver	Ortiz
Pastor	Payne	Perlmutter	Peterson (MN)	Pomeroy
Porter	Price (NC)	Radanovich	Reyes	Rodriguez
Rogers (AL)	Ross	Roybal-Allard	Rush	Ryan (OH)
Salazar	Sanchez, Linda T.	Sanchez, Loretta	Sarbanes	Schakowsky
Schiff	Schwartz	Scott (GA)	Scott (VA)	Sensenbrenner
Serrano	Shea-Porter	Sherman	Sires	Skelton
Slaughter	Smith (WA)	Snyder	Solis	Spratt
Stark	Stearns	Sutton	Tauscher	Taylor
Thompson (CA)	Tiahrt	Tierney	Towns	Udall (CO)
Udall (NM)	Van Hollen	Velazquez	Visclosky	Walden (OR)
Walsh (NY)	Walz (MN)	Wasserman Schultz	Waters	Watson
Watt	Waxman	Weiner	Weldon (FL)	Wicker
Wilson (OH)	Woolsey	Wu	Wynn	Young (AK)
Young (FL)
NOT VOTING--20
Bonner	Brady (TX)	Buchanan	Coble	Davis, Jo Ann
Eshoo	Faleomavaega	Gutierrez	Hastings (WA)	LaHood
Lofgren, Zoe	McHenry	Meehan	Miller, George	Paul
Pickering	Sessions	Stupak	Tancredo	Westmoreland

Announcement by the Chairman

The Chairman (during the vote): There are 30 seconds remaining.

So the amendment was rejected.

The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

Amendment Offered by Mrs. Musgrave

The Chairman: The unfinished business is the demand for a recorded vote on the amendment offered by the gentlewoman from Colorado (Mrs. Musgrave) on which further proceedings were postponed and on which the noes prevailed by voice vote.

The Clerk will redesignate the amendment.

The Clerk redesignated the amendment.

Recorded Vote

The Chairman: A recorded vote has been demanded.

A recorded vote was ordered.

The Chairman: This will be a 2-minute vote.

The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--ayes 383, noes 34, not voting 20, as follows:

Roll No. 497 - Musgrave Amendment
AYES--383
Abercrombie	Ackerman	Aderholt	Akin	Alexander
Allen	Altmire	Andrews	Arcuri	Baca
Bachmann	Baird	Baker	Baldwin	Bartlett (MD)
Bean	Becerra	Berkley	Berman	Berry
Bilbray	Bilirakis	Bishop (GA)	Bishop (NY)	Bishop (UT)
Blackburn	Blunt	Boehner	Bono	Boozman
Bordallo	Boren	Boswell	Boucher	Boustany
Boyd (FL)	Boyda (KS)	Brady (PA)	Braley (IA)	Brown (SC)
Brown, Corrine	Brown-Waite, Ginny	Burgess	Burton (IN)	Butterfield
Buyer	Calvert	Camp (MI)	Campbell (CA)	Cannon
Cantor	Capito	Capps	Cardoza	Carnahan
Carney	Carson	Carter	Castle	Castor
Chabot	Chandler	Christensen	Clarke	Clay
Cleaver	Clyburn	Cohen	Cole (OK)	Conaway
Conyers	Cooper	Costa	Costello	Courtney
Cramer	Crowley	Cubin	Cuellar	Culberson
Cummings	Davis (AL)	Davis (CA)	Davis (IL)	Davis (KY)
Davis, David	Davis, Lincoln	Davis, Tom	Deal (GA)	DeFazio
DeGette	Delahunt	DeLauro	Dent	Diaz-Balart, L.
Diaz-Balart, M.	Dingell	Doggett	Donnelly	Doolittle
Doyle	Drake	Dreier	Duncan	Ehlers
Ellison	Ellsworth	Emerson	Engel	English (PA)
Etheridge	Everett	Fallin	Farr	Fattah
Feeney	Ferguson	Filner	Flake	Forbes
Fortenberry	Fortuno	Fossella	Foxx	Frank (MA)
Franks (AZ)	Gallegly	Garrett (NJ)	Gerlach	Giffords
Gilchrest	Gillibrand	Gillmor	Gingrey	Gohmert
Gonzalez	Goode	Goodlatte	Gordon	Granger
Graves	Green, Al	Green, Gene	Grijalva	Hall (NY)
Hall (TX)	Hare	Harman	Hastings (FL)	Hayes
Heller	Hensarling	Herger	Herseth Sandlin	Hill
Hinchey	Hinojosa	Hirono	Hobson	Hodes
Hoekstra	Holden	Holt	Honda	Hooley
Hoyer	Hulshof	Hunter	Inglis (SC)	Inslee
Israel	Issa	Jackson (IL)	Jackson-Lee (TX)	Jefferson
Jindal	Johnson (GA)	Johnson, E. B.	Johnson, Sam	Jones (NC)
Jones (OH)	Jordan	Kagen	Kanjorski	Kaptur
Keller	Kennedy	Kildee	Kilpatrick	Kind
King (IA)	King (NY)	Kingston	Kirk	Klein (FL)
Kline (MN)	Knollenberg	Kucinich	Kuhl (NY)	Lampson
Langevin	Lantos	Larsen (WA)	Larson (CT)	Latham
LaTourette	Lee	Levin	Lewis (GA)	Lewis (KY)
Linder	Lipinski	LoBiondo	Loebsack	Lowey
Lucas	Mack	Mahoney (FL)	Maloney (NY)	Manzullo
Marchant	Markey	Matheson	Matsui	McCarthy (CA)
McCarthy (NY)	McCaul (TX)	McCollum (MN)	McCotter	McCrery
McDermott	McGovern	McHugh	McIntyre	McKeon
McMorris Rodgers	McNerney	McNulty	Meek (FL)	Meeks (NY)
Melancon	Mica	Michaud	Miller (FL)	Miller (MI)
Miller (NC)	Miller, Gary	Mitchell	Mollohan	Moore (KS)
Moore (WI)	Moran (KS)	Moran (VA)	Murphy (CT)	Murphy, Patrick
Murphy, Tim	Murtha	Musgrave	Myrick	Nadler
Napolitano	Neal (MA)	Neugebauer	Norton	Nunes
Oberstar	Obey	Olver	Ortiz	Pallone
Pastor	Payne	Pearce	Pence	Perlmutter
Peterson (MN)	Peterson (PA)	Petri	Pitts	Platts
Poe	Pomeroy	Porter	Price (GA)	Price (NC)
Pryce (OH)	Radanovich	Rahall	Ramstad	Rangel
Regula	Rehberg	Reichert	Renzi	Reyes
Reynolds	Rodriguez	Rogers (AL)	Rogers (KY)	Rogers (MI)
Rohrabacher	Ros-Lehtinen	Roskam	Ross	Rothman
Roybal-Allard	Royce	Ruppersberger	Rush	Ryan (OH)
Ryan (WI)	Salazar	Sali	Sarbanes	Saxton
Schakowsky	Schiff	Schmidt	Schwartz	Scott (GA)
Scott (VA)	Sensenbrenner	Serrano	Shadegg	Shays
Shea-Porter	Sherman	Shuler	Shuster	Simpson
Sires	Slaughter	Smith (NE)	Smith (NJ)	Smith (TX)
Snyder	Solis	Souder	Space	Spratt
Stark	Stearns	Sullivan	Sutton	Tanner
Tauscher	Terry	Thompson (CA)	Thornberry	Tiahrt
Tierney	Towns	Turner	Udall (CO)	Udall (NM)
Upton	Van Hollen	Velazquez	Walberg	Walden (OR)
Walsh (NY)	Walz (MN)	Wamp	Wasserman Schultz	Waters
Watson	Watt	Waxman	Weiner	Welch (VT)
Weldon (FL)	Weller	Wexler	Whitfield	Wilson (NM)
Wilson (OH)	Wilson (SC)	Wolf	Woolsey	Wu
Wynn	Yarmuth	Young (AK)
NOES--34
Bachus	Barrett (SC)	Barrow	Barton (TX)	Biggert
Blumenauer	Capuano	Crenshaw	Dicks	Edwards
Emanuel	Frelinghuysen	Hastert	Higgins	Johnson (IL)
Lamborn	Lewis (CA)	Lungren, Daniel E.	Lynch	Marshall
Pascrell	Putnam	Sanchez, Linda T.	Sanchez, Loretta	Sestak
Shimkus	Skelton	Smith (WA)	Taylor	Thompson (MS)
Tiberi	Visclosky	Wicker	Young (FL)
NOT VOTING--20
Bonner	Brady (TX)	Buchanan	Coble	Davis, Jo Ann
Eshoo	Faleomavaega	Gutierrez	Hastings (WA)	LaHood
Lofgren, Zoe	McHenry	Meehan	Miller, George	Paul
Pickering	Sessions	Stupak	Tancredo	Westmoreland

Announcement by the Chairman

The Chairman (during the vote): There are 30 seconds remaining.

Mr. Miller of North Carolina changed his vote from "no" to "aye."

So the amendment was agreed to.

The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

The Acting chairman: The Clerk will read.

The Clerk read as follows:

This Act may be cited as the "Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, 2008".

Mr. Edwards: Mr. Chairman, I move that the Committee do now rise and report the bill back to the House with sundry amendments, with the recommendation that the amendments be agreed to and that the bill, as amended, do pass.

The motion was agreed to.

Accordingly, the Committee rose; and the Speaker pro tempore (Mr. Weiner) having assumed the chair, Mr. Lynch, Chairman of the Committee of the Whole House on the state of the Union, reported that that Committee, having had under consideration the bill (H.R. 2642) making appropriations for military construction, the Department of Veterans Affairs, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008, and for other purposes, pursuant to the previous order of the House by unanimous consent, he reported the bill back to the House with sundry amendments adopted in the Committee of the Whole, with the recommendation that the amendments be agreed to and that the bill, as amended, do pass.

The Speaker pro tempore: Under the rule, the previous question is ordered.

Is a separate vote demanded on any amendment reported from the Committee of the Whole? If not, the Chair will put them en gros.

The amendments were agreed to.

The Speaker pro tempore: The question is on the engrossment and third reading of the bill.

The bill was ordered to be engrossed and read a third time, and was read the third time.

The Speaker pro tempore: The question is on the passage of the bill.

Under clause 10 of rule XX, the yeas and nays are ordered.

This will be a 5-minute vote.

The vote was taken by electronic device, and there were--yeas 409, nays 2, not voting 21, as follows:

Roll No. 498 - On Passage of Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations for FY 2008
YEAS--409
Abercrombie	Ackerman	Aderholt	Akin	Alexander
Allen	Altmire	Andrews	Arcuri	Baca
Bachmann	Bachus	Baird	Baker	Baldwin
Barrett (SC)	Barrow	Bartlett (MD)	Barton (TX)	Bean
Becerra	Berkley	Berman	Berry	Biggert
Bilbray	Bilirakis	Bishop (GA)	Bishop (NY)	Bishop (UT)
Blackburn	Blumenauer	Blunt	Boehner	Bono
Boozman	Boren	Boswell	Boucher	Boustany
Boyd (FL)	Boyda (KS)	Brady (PA)	Braley (IA)	Brown (SC)
Brown, Corrine	Brown-Waite, Ginny	Burgess	Burton (IN)	Butterfield
Buyer	Calvert	Camp (MI)	Cannon	Cantor
Capito	Capps	Capuano	Cardoza	Carnahan
Carney	Carson	Carter	Castle	Castor
Chabot	Chandler	Clarke	Clay	Cleaver
Clyburn	Cohen	Cole (OK)	Conaway	Conyers
Cooper	Costa	Costello	Courtney	Cramer
Crenshaw	Crowley	Cubin	Cuellar	Culberson
Cummings	Davis (AL)	Davis (CA)	Davis (IL)	Davis (KY)
Davis, David	Davis, Lincoln	Davis, Tom	Deal (GA)	DeFazio
DeGette	Delahunt	DeLauro	Dent	Diaz-Balart, M.
Dicks	Dingell	Doggett	Donnelly	Doolittle
Doyle	Drake	Dreier	Duncan	Edwards
Ehlers	Ellison	Ellsworth	Emanuel	Emerson
Engel	English (PA)	Etheridge	Everett	Fallin
Farr	Fattah	Ferguson	Filner	Flake
Forbes	Fortenberry	Fossella	Foxx	Frank (MA)
Franks (AZ)	Frelinghuysen	Gallegly	Garrett (NJ)	Gerlach
Giffords	Gilchrest	Gillibrand	Gillmor	Gingrey
Gohmert	Gonzalez	Goode	Goodlatte	Gordon
Granger	Graves	Green, Al	Green, Gene	Grijalva
Hall (NY)	Hall (TX)	Hare	Harman	Hastert
Hastings (FL)	Hayes	Heller	Hensarling	Herger
Herseth Sandlin	Higgins	Hill	Hinchey	Hinojosa
Hirono	Hobson	Hodes	Hoekstra	Holden
Holt	Honda	Hooley	Hoyer	Hulshof
Hunter	Inglis (SC)	Inslee	Israel	Issa
Jackson (IL)	Jackson-Lee (TX)	Jefferson	Jindal	Johnson (GA)
Johnson (IL)	Johnson, E. B.	Johnson, Sam	Jones (NC)	Jones (OH)
Jordan	Kagen	Kanjorski	Kaptur	Keller
Kennedy	Kildee	Kind	King (IA)	King (NY)
Kingston	Kirk	Klein (FL)	Kline (MN)	Knollenberg
Kucinich	Kuhl (NY)	Lamborn	Lampson	Langevin
Lantos	Larsen (WA)	Larson (CT)	Latham	LaTourette
Lee	Levin	Lewis (CA)	Lewis (GA)	Lewis (KY)
Linder	Lipinski	LoBiondo	Loebsack	Lowey
Lucas	Lungren, Daniel E.	Lynch	Mack	Mahoney (FL)
Maloney (NY)	Manzullo	Marchant	Markey	Marshall
Matheson	Matsui	McCarthy (CA)	McCarthy (NY)	McCaul (TX)
McCollum (MN)	McCotter	McCrery	McDermott	McGovern
McHugh	McIntyre	McKeon	McMorris Rodgers	McNerney
McNulty	Meek (FL)	Meeks (NY)	Melancon	Mica
Michaud	Miller (FL)	Miller (MI)	Miller (NC)	Miller, Gary
Mitchell	Mollohan	Moore (KS)	Moore (WI)	Moran (KS)
Moran (VA)	Murphy (CT)	Murphy, Patrick	Murphy, Tim	Murtha
Musgrave	Myrick	Nadler	Napolitano	Neal (MA)
Neugebauer	Nunes	Oberstar	Obey	Olver
Ortiz	Pallone	Pascrell	Pastor	Payne
Pearce	Pence	Perlmutter	Peterson (MN)	Peterson (PA)
Petri	Pitts	Platts	Poe	Pomeroy
Porter	Price (GA)	Price (NC)	Pryce (OH)	Putnam
Radanovich	Rahall	Ramstad	Rangel	Regula
Rehberg	Reichert	Renzi	Reyes	Reynolds
Rodriguez	Rogers (AL)	Rogers (KY)	Rogers (MI)	Rohrabacher
Ros-Lehtinen	Roskam	Ross	Rothman	Roybal-Allard
Royce	Ruppersberger	Rush	Ryan (OH)	Ryan (WI)
Salazar	Sali	Sanchez, Linda T.	Sanchez, Loretta	Sarbanes
Saxton	Schakowsky	Schiff	Schmidt	Schwartz
Scott (GA)	Scott (VA)	Sensenbrenner	Serrano	Sestak
Shadegg	Shays	Shea-Porter	Sherman	Shimkus
Shuler	Shuster	Simpson	Sires	Skelton
Slaughter	Smith (NE)	Smith (NJ)	Smith (TX)	Smith (WA)
Snyder	Solis	Souder	Space	Spratt
Stark	Stearns	Sullivan	Sutton	Tanner
Tauscher	Taylor	Terry	Thompson (CA)	Thompson (MS)
Thornberry	Tiahrt	Tiberi	Tierney	Towns
Turner	Udall (CO)	Udall (NM)	Upton	Van Hollen
Velazquez	Visclosky	Walberg	Walden (OR)	Walsh (NY)
Walz (MN)	Wamp	Wasserman Schultz	Waters	Watson
Watt	Waxman	Weiner	Welch (VT)	Weldon (FL)
Weller	Wexler	Whitfield	Wicker	Wilson (NM)
Wilson (OH)	Wilson (SC)	Wolf	Woolsey	Wu
Wynn	Yarmuth	Young (AK)	Young (FL)
NAYS--2
Campbell (CA)	Feeney
NOT VOTING--21
Bonner	Brady (TX)	Buchanan	Coble	Davis, Jo Ann
Diaz-Balart, L.	Eshoo	Gutierrez	Hastings (WA)	Kilpatrick
LaHood	Lofgren, Zoe	McHenry	Meehan	Miller, George
Paul	Pickering	Sessions	Stupak	Tancredo
Westmoreland

Announcement by the Speaker Pro Tempore

The Speaker pro tempore (during the vote): Members are advised 2 minutes remain in this vote.

So the bill was passed.

The result of the vote was announced as above recorded.

A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

Stated for:

Mr. Coble: Mr. Speaker, I was detained and not present on the House Floor when the final vote for passage of H.R. 2642--Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations was taken. Had I been present I would have voted "yea."