[Congressional Record Volume 151, Number 148 (Wednesday, November 9, 2005)]
[House]
[Pages H10072-H10074]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



  Mr. MOLLOHAN. Madam Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the distinguished 
gentlewoman from Texas (Ms. Jackson-Lee).
  (Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas asked and was given permission to revise 
and extend her remarks.)
  Ms. JACKSON-LEE of Texas. Madam Speaker, I thank the ranking member, 
and I do thank the chairman. This is an interesting mix of a committee, 
the State, Justice, Commerce and related agencies; and I acknowledge 
that the amount is up to $4.9 billion from the request of $4.7 billion. 
Let me quickly point out some areas that I wish we had more money, but 
I am grateful and want to emphasize the value and this is, of course, 
NOAA that played a pivotal role and could play an even greater role as 
we begin to see climatic changes and see storm surges create the 
devastation of the gulf coast.
  This is an important agency and the monies included certainly are 
welcome and arguably, I hope, we will see additional dollars. The $1.3 
billion for international peacekeeping certainly is valuable, and I 
hope that the emphasis is on peacekeeping. I would hope that some of 
those dollars could be used in transitioning our military out of Iraq 
and putting in peacekeeping forces that would combine with our allies 
over this crisis that we have.
  I am grateful that NASA is funded. In times of trouble, I know that 
we look to agencies like this, but I am grateful for that funding and 
also for the National Science Foundation and, in particular, the small 
business.
  What I do want to bring to my colleagues' attention are two points. 
One, I am sorry that we did not include the language that would 
prohibit the FBI under the PATRIOT Act from accessing library 
circulation records. And I hope we can fix that. I really do. After the 
backdrop of the national security letters, we know that the FBI, we 
have a great deal of respect for them and their homeland security role; 
but we need the protection of civil liberties as well.
  I would also say to my good friend, one of the issues that I have 
been

[[Page H10073]]

studying for a number of years is, if you will, the population of 
elderly prisoners who are in the Federal prisons. They are nonviolent. 
They are in there for nonviolent offenses. And we have been working on 
what we call the Good Time Early Release program that would release 
individuals over the age of 40 to 45 on good behavior. And I believe 
that this is an issue that is long overdue. I hope that we can work on 
authorization, but also appropriations to look at this issue. I ask my 
colleagues to support the conference.
  Mr. GORDON. Madam Speaker, I am very pleased that the joint 
explanatory statement of the Committee of Conference designated 
$360,000 under the COPS Methamphetamine Enforcement and Clean-up for 
the Tennessee Methamphetamine Detection and Remediation Research.
  Tennessee Technological University will use this funding to develop 
mobile equipment that can help law enforcement detect and analyze 
environmental hazards associated with clandestine meth labs.
  Since 1999, the number of meth labs in Tennessee has increased by 
more than 500 percent. And, more than 1,300 labs were seized last year 
in Tennessee alone, the most of any state in the Southeast.
  We have all read the news stories about illegal homemade labs being 
set up inside houses, apartments, and even in the trunks of cars. Too 
often you hear about one of these labs exploding, injuring the meth 
cooks, as well as children inside the home, or even innocent 
bystanders. These volatile labs pose a threat to the entire community. 
Tennessee Tech University will collaborate with the law enforcement 
community to address this critical problem.
  Once again, I am very grateful to the conferees for providing this 
important funding for Tennessee Tech University.
  Mr. GENE GREEN of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of this 
bill to fund the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, as well 
as NASA and the National Science Foundation.
  In crafting this legislation, our appropriators faced the difficult 
task of adequately funding many national priorities. On balance, they 
did a remarkable job and have produced a bill worthy of our support.
  This bill increases funding for many important Justice Department 
programs and included a 9 percent increase for the Federal Bureau of 
Investigation and a 6 percent increase for both the U.S. Marshals 
Service and the Drug Enforcement Agency.
  For sure, there are programs that we would all like to see funded at 
higher levels. I am particularly disappointed to see reduced funding 
for local law enforcement, Community Oriented Policing Services and 
juvenile justice programs; however, I am pleased that appropriators did 
not accept the Administration's request to lump all of these programs 
into one broad Justice Assistance line. I also applaud the conference 
committee for increasing funds for Byrne grants and the State Criminal 
Alien Assistance Program, both of which I have long supported.
  This is the first year that NASA has been funded in this legislation, 
which provided $16.5 billion--or a 2 percent increase--for NASA. I 
appreciate the committee's support of NASA's efforts to develop a crew 
exploration vehicle that will eventually replace the Space Shuttle. 
With Johnson Space Center in our community, we are certainly grateful 
that the committee rejected the Administration's efforts to cut funding 
for NASA's Aeronautics Research program.
  While the bill provides a slight decrease in funding for the Commerce 
Department, I am pleased to see significant funding increases for the 
Economic Development Administration and NOAA, as compared to House-
passed funding levels.
  One program of particular interest to me and our community in Houston 
is NOAA's Coastal and Estuarine Land Protection Program. This program 
exists to protect important coastal and estuarine areas that have 
significant conservation, recreation, ecological, or historical values 
and are threatened by development or conversion.
  In Houston, we are involved in an effort to preserve the Buffalo 
Bayou, which is the historic waterway on which the Allen Brothers 
founded Houston in 1836. NOAA's Coastal and Estuarine Land Protection 
Program has allowed us to partner with the Trust for Public Land to 
conserve critical tracts of land along the Buffalo Bayou in order to 
further our conservation efforts.
  For the past two years, Congress has supported our land acquisition 
funding requests to help revitalize the Buffalo Bayou in a manner that 
balances the need to conserve the Bayou's wetlands and waterways with 
the recreational and business development needed to transform the 
Buffalo Bayou into an active and vibrant urban waterfront center.
  To date, congressionally-appropriated funds have played a significant 
role in the development of Buffalo Bend Nature Park, which was recently 
dedicated and has provided residents of my district with increased 
greenspace and recreational opportunities.
  In this bill, Congress appropriated $750,000 for the acquisition of 
two tracts of land, funding that will further the goals of the Buffalo 
Bayou master plan. Land along the Buffalo Bayou will be purchased to 
expand Hidalgo Park, which sits in a historically Hispanic community 
that has traditionally lacked park land. Through this acquisition, 
Hidalgo Park will be linked to Buffalo Bend Nature Park, enhancing 
residents' recreational and environmental experience along the bayou.
  The funding will also allow the City of Houston to purchase land 
along Brays Bayou, beginning at the confluence of Brays Bayou and 
Buffalo Bayou and stretching to Mason Park, less than a mile away. This 
area is a prime location for a greenbelt park, the development of which 
would further the City's plan for parks connected by and along the 
city's bayous.
  I would like to thank appropriators in both the House and the Senate 
for recognizing the value of these projects and positive impact they 
will make on the quality of life for my constituents. With that, Madam 
Speaker, I encourage my colleagues to support this legislation.
  Mr. DeLAY. Madam Speaker, the Science-State-Justice-Commerce 
conference report is a fiscally responsible, disciplined package that 
meets our Nation's needs while staying within our Nation's means.
  And we should be particularly happy that conference negotiators have 
once again wisely chosen to fully fund NASA's efforts to implement 
President Bush's vision for space exploration.
  The history of our space program has shown that money spent by our 
taxpayers on NASA is an investment in the technologies that drive not 
only our exploration of the unknown, but our economy here on Earth.
  Since its earliest days, NASA has blazed the trails of rocketry, 
satellite technology, aerospace engineering, telecommunications, and 
even produced health care miracles from the MRI to the portable x-ray 
machine.
  The earthbound application of these spacebased innovations has 
transformed the way we live our lives, do our jobs, and communicate 
with each other and the rest of the world.
  President Bush's vision, already being implemented by new NASA 
Administrator Mike Griffin and his excellent staff, will rededicate our 
space program to its original, exploratory mission.
  Today's bill provides more than $16 billion for our space program.
  It fully funds the ongoing work of the still vital and necessary 
space shuttle program and the other first-stage components of the 
president's vision for space at more than $3.1 billion.
  And with this funding--a mere 1.5 percent increase from last year--we 
have also provided the NASA Administrator the flexibility he needs to 
manage his agency's ever-shifting needs and challenges.
  Fully funding NASA means fully trusting the courage and brilliance of 
NASA's people, from astronauts to engineers to support staff, all who 
are focused on completing the first stage of work in the president's 
vision: returning the shuttle to flight, completing the International 
Space Station, developing the next generation space vehicle, and 
advancing the other aspects of NASA's critical mission.
  I have that trust, and this conference report shows that the American 
people do, too.
  I urge all my colleagues to support this legislation.
  Mr. ALLEN. Madam Speaker, although I support the Science-State-
Commerce-Justice Appropriations conference report, I rise today to call 
attention to the need for more funding for our coasts and oceans.
  When, together with Representatives Weldon and Farr and former 
Congressman Jim Greenwood, I co-founded the Bipartisan House Oceans 
Caucus in 1999 in order to inform my colleagues about the oceans, we 
faced major policy challenges. Americans were faced with declining fish 
stocks, beach closures due to poor water quality, and laws that were 
inadequate to protect America's oceans. My constituents were asking 
why.
  In 2000, Congress finally asked why also. The Oceans Act of 2000 
called for a National Commission on Ocean Policy and charged the 
Commissioners with conducting a nationwide fact-finding mission on the 
state of our oceans.
  The goal was to develop policy recommendations that would lead to a 
coordinated and comprehensive national ocean policy. The independent 
Pew Oceans Commission underwent a similar process, touring the country 
to listen to testimony from scientists, stakeholders, and others to 
identify the root problems threatening our nations' oceans.
  The products of these two commissions are nothing short of 
remarkable. Two comprehensive guides, based on the knowledge of our 
nation's experts, came to many comparable conclusions.

[[Page H10074]]

  Specifically, the two reports call on Congress to increase our 
investment in the study, management, and protection of our oceans. 
Relative to their size and economic' value, funding for ocean research 
and management pales in comparison for other natural resource programs. 
The federal government spends over $10 billion to manage public lands 
and more than $16 billion on space exploration.
  In 2001, the Pew Commission recommended a doubling of the NOAA budget 
to $6 billion over 5 years. Similarly, the U.S. Commission on Ocean 
Policy recommended an additional $3.9 billion in new spending on top of 
what we already allocate to NOAA. Yet, the legislation we are debating 
today sets NOAA's budget for Fiscal Year 2006 at only $3.95 billion. 
This level is only a modest increase of $28 million over funding levels 
enacted in FY '05 ($3.92 billion total).
  Now I have a great deal of respect for the Chairman, Mr. Wolf, and 
the Ranking Member, Mr. Mollohan, and I know that they did the best 
they could with this bill under the tight budget allocations that they 
were forced to deal with. In this conference report there are modest 
increases to fishery and coastal management programs but these are 
unfortunately accompanied by cuts to other vital programs such as 
marine sanctuaries, the Coastal and Estuarine Land Conservation 
Program, and the National Sea Grant Program.
  Our economy, security, and health all hinge on healthy ocean 
ecosystems. I look forward to working with the Chairman and the Ranking 
Member on implementing the recommendations of the Ocean Commissions and 
investing appropriately in our coasts and oceans in the FY 2007 budget.
  Mr. VAN HOLLEN. Madam Speaker, I rise to applaud the passage of the 
FY 2006 Science-State-Justice-Commerce Appropriations Bill, which 
includes funding for Montgomery and Prince George's Counties Joint Gang 
Suppression and Prevention Initiative in my district. I salute my 
colleague Mr. Wolf and thank him for his leadership on confronting the 
issue of gang violence in the Washington metropolitan area.
  The federal funding approved today builds on the ongoing work of the 
Joint County Gang Prevention Task Force, which was established by the 
county executives of Montgomery and Prince George's Counties in 
February 2004. This funding will allow for the establishment of 
centralized anti-gang units within each county's police force, enabling 
them to pursue a zero-tolerance policy for gang violence. A cross 
jurisdictional community-based program, serving youth and families, 
would be created to provide gang prevention education, mentoring, and 
outreach services. Critical after-school programs would be funded for 
areas where there is a high incidence of gang activity.
  Law enforcement research shows that there are approximately 3,600 
gang members in Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia and 
that there are nine major active gangs and more than 100 additional 
crews region wide. Montgomery County Police estimate that there are 20 
to 22 active gangs with approximately 540 to 560 active members and 
associates. Prince George's County Police estimate that there are 50 
crews or gangs in that county with a total of over 400 members. 
Officials in Prince George's County note a recent increase in the 
number of Latino gangs and report that the criminal activity of these 
gangs has expanded to sophisticated car theft rings and prostitution.
  This funding will help the people of Montgomery and Prince George's 
Counties fight the growing problem of gang violence and teach young 
people that gang life is not the road to success, but rather the path 
to prison. It is important that we provide our law enforcement 
officials, our teachers, and our community leaders with the support 
they need as they work to keep our youth safe from gangs and teach them 
the long term consequences of joining a gang.
  Mr. WOLF. Madam Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore (Mrs. Biggert). Without objection, the 
previous question is ordered on the conference report.
  There was no objection.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the conference report.
  Pursuant to clause 10 of rule XX, the yeas and nays are ordered.
  Pursuant to clause 8 of rule XX, further proceedings on this question 
will be postponed.

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