[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 94 (Monday, June 9, 2008)]
[House]
[Pages H5085-H5086]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
REFORM OF MUTUAL AID AGREEMENTS FOR THE NATIONAL CAPITAL REGION
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and
pass the Senate bill (S. 1245) to reform mutual aid agreements for the
National Capital Region.
The Clerk read the title of the Senate bill.
The text of the Senate bill is as follows:
S. 1245
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of
the United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. REFORM OF MUTUAL AID AGREEMENTS FOR THE NATIONAL
CAPITAL REGION.
Section 7302 of the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism
Prevention Act of 2004 (42 U.S.C. 5196 note) is amended--
(1) in subsection (a)--
(A) in paragraph (4), by striking ``, including its agents
or authorized volunteers,''; and
(B) in paragraph (5), by striking ``or town'' and all that
follows and inserting ``town, or other governmental agency,
governmental authority, or governmental institution with the
power to sue or be sued in its own name, within the National
Capital Region.'';
(2) in subsection (b)(1), in the matter preceding
subparagraph (A), by striking ``, the Washington Metropolitan
Area Transit Authority, the Metropolitan Washington Airports
Authority, and any other governmental agency or authority'';
and
(3) in subsection (d), by striking ``or employees'' each
place that term appears and inserting ``, employees, or
agents''.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from
Illinois (Mr. Davis) and the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Burton) each
will control 20 minutes.
The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Illinois.
General Leave
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all
Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their
remarks.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the
gentleman from Illinois?
There was no objection.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may
consume.
Mr. Speaker, as a member of the House Committee on Oversight and
Government Reform, I join my colleagues in the consideration of S.
1245, which will make some minor but much needed changes to the mutual
aid agreements authorized by the Intelligence Reform and Terrorism
Prevention Act of 2004 for the governments of the National Capital
Region.
S. 1249 was received by the House on December 13, 2007 after being
passed under unanimous consent by the Senate. The measure is authored
by Senator Ben Cardin of Maryland and is supported by the members of
the National Capital Region, which includes the District of Columbia
and surrounding local jurisdictions in Maryland and Virginia that are
also part of the Metropolitan Washington Council of Governments. The
legislative changes enacted by this measure are also backed by the
State of Maryland and the Commonwealth of Virginia.
S. 1249 addresses and authorizes changes to two aspects of the
original legislation. For starters, the measure adds a special purpose
governmental authority category to be included as part of the area's
mutual aid agreement. This newly created category will permit such
entities as the Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority, the
Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority and the District of
Columbia Water and Sewer Authority to participate in the mutual aid
agreement during the event of an emergency.
Secondly, S. 1245 grants the regional members of the mutual aid
agreement additional flexibility in developing an exhaustive list of
employees and authorized volunteers who will be committed to respond to
a disaster on behalf of the various independent authorities and State
or local governments.
Instead of having to keep a running tally of each individual employee
or person participating in the agreement, S. 1245 will allow each of
the overarching authorities to keep track of their own participants.
This bill authorizes the former inclusion of volunteer entities, such
as incorporated volunteer fire companies, to be covered under the
mutual aid agreement.
So Mr. Speaker, since it is vitally important that we in the National
Capital Region are prepared and ready to respond in the event of a
major emergency or disaster, it is incumbent upon us that we pass S.
1245.
I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this measure.
Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.
Mr. BURTON of Indiana. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on S. 1245,
legislation to reform mutual aid agreements for the National Capital
Region.
This legislation was introduced by Senators Cardin, Warner, Mikulski,
and Webb last July and passed by the Senate in December by unanimous
consent.
Under current law, the Federal Government is authorized to enter into
mutual aid agreements with State and local governments in the National
Capital Region in order to allow the various jurisdictions to cooperate
in the event of an emergency without risk of liability for the acts or
omissions of their employees while rendering aid.
Senate bill 1245 would further state that entities such as the
Metropolitan Washington Airport Authority, the Water and Sewer
Authority and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority would
be authorized to enter into these mutual aid agreements as well.
The goal here is to ensure that emergency response personnel in the
National Capital Region are able to coordinate as closely as possible
in the event of an emergency. Hopefully this legislation helps us to
move closer in that direction.
And before I yield back my time, since I've covered that subject, I
just
[[Page H5086]]
want to say to my colleagues on the other side, for whom I have the
greatest respect, tomorrow morning, when you get up and you get out of
bed and you go to the office here on Capitol Hill, stop by one of the
gas stations on the way in and watch some people pumping gas at $4 plus
per gallon. And just walk up to them--and you don't need to tell them
you're a Congressman or a Senator or anything else, just walk up to
them and say, what do you think about the gas prices? And they're going
to say, they're horrible; Congress has to do something about it. And
then say, would you object if we drilled in the ANWR to get oil to
reduce your gasoline prices? Would you object if we drilled off the
Continental Shelf to get another couple million barrels of oil a day to
reduce your gas prices and your energy costs? Would you object if we
drilled in some of the forests that we have, national forests where we
could get 400 or 500 years of natural gas out? Would you object to
that? Would you object if we considered more nuclear reactors to
produce electricity for this country so we can lower the price of
energy and, in effect, end up lowering the price of gasoline and other
fuel products as well? You know what they're going to say? They're
going to say what the national polls have already shown; 80 percent
plus are for drilling and getting oil out of our country and our
resources out of the ground. That's what the American people want.
I want to point out one more thing, because I respect all my
colleagues on the other side of the aisle. When you first took over the
Congress 2 years ago, one of the things that was said by you and
Speaker Pelosi was that we were going to do something about the energy
crisis and we were going to stem the tide to the growth in the cost of
fuel, gasoline, and other energy products. Now it's gone up over 50
percent. It's now $4 plus. And it was $2.50 lower than that just 2
years ago.
It's time that we as Republicans and Democrats work together. The
American people want that. It's time that we work together to lower the
price of gasoline and other energy products. And we can do that by
drilling in the ANWR, drilling off the Continental Shelf, drilling in
our national forests where we can get natural gas, which is a clean
burning fuel. And if we just start doing that, and at the same time
look at other energy sources, new sources that are nonpollutants, we
would be in great shape. Incidentally, we also have about two trillion
barrels of oil in oil shale.
Let me just say to my colleagues that I hope that you will take heed
to what I've said today. The American people want lower gas prices. We
have it within our power to start drilling where we can get gas out of
this country, natural gas, oil, and other things. Just tell the
American people what you think and ask them what they think. And
they're going to say ``Drill in America.'' You can do it in an
environmentally safe way.
With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
Mr. DAVIS of Illinois. Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleague from
Indiana for the opportunity to spend as much time with him as we have
spent this afternoon. I also want to commend him for his advocacy,
especially the effort to get down the price of gasoline.
I have no lack of confidence in our ability to make that happen,
especially when I think of the efforts that have been put forth to
produce more energy-efficient automobiles, to make sure that we're not
polluting our environment as much. And I think those people that I
would come into contact with would say to me, you know, if we start
drilling right now all over the place, the prices are going to be the
same next week, they're going to be the same next month.
They want some relief that is as immediate--and I don't really have
to come to Washington because they stop me in Chicago, where we pay
more than anybody else in the country. And so I want to thank the
gentleman for his comments and urge passage of this legislation.
Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the
gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Davis) that the House suspend the rules
and pass the Senate bill, S. 1245.
The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the
rules were suspended and the Senate bill was passed.
A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.
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