[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 14238-14244]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




PAYING TRIBUTE TO AMERICA'S HEROES, U.S. ENERGY POLICY, AND FOCUSING ON 
                         PREVENTIVE HEALTH CARE

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 4, 2005, the gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Wamp) is recognized 
for 60 minutes as the designee of the majority leader.
  Mr. WAMP. Mr. Speaker, over the next several minutes, we here in the 
majority are going to talk about two issues that are incredibly 
important to the future of our country: our energy policy and then 
preventive health care and personal responsibility in trying to get our 
arms around the rising costs of health care.
  But before I begin our discussion on energy, and especially in light 
of the commentary that we just heard on the House floor and the very 
patriotic tribute by the gentleman from Maryland to the Greatest 
Generation, I thought I would pause and pay a tribute to a person who I 
may have met, I am not sure, but I heard this week about his life, and 
he died a week ago in Iraq, a young patriot named Noah Harris, Second 
Lieutenant, United States Army, a platoon leader from Ellijay, Georgia.
  Mr. Speaker, three summers ago he was interning here in Washington in 
the office of the gentleman from Georgia (Mr. Deal), and he felt a 
passion to volunteer to serve our country at this time of war in 
response to the terrorist threat, and he signed up, and he went.
  I happened to be taking a tour group through the Senate this week, 
just yesterday, and I sat in the Senate gallery and I heard the 
distinguished Senator from Georgia, Senator Isakson, pay tribute to 
Noah Harris's life, because in May of this year, Lieutenant Harris sent 
Senator Isakson this note from Iraq to Senator Isakson. He said, ``Now 
I am serving my country as an infantry officer in Iraq. I am proud to 
say that the situation is improving here. The media often misses the 
big picture. Our presence here is not just about Iraq, it is sending a 
message to the oppressed peoples of the world that freedom can be a 
reality. Freedom is the greatest gift that we, the United States, has 
been granted and, as such, it is our responsibility to spread it. For 
it to become a permanent fixture in our future and our children's 
future, we must give it to all those that desire it.''
  Mr. Speaker, he said that last month; and then, last week, he gave 
that full, that last full measure of devotion to our country. I pay 
tribute to this great American hero. Tomorrow, they will gather in the 
mountains of north Georgia, down below my district in Tennessee, to pay 
their last respects to him.
  But he represents so many of our brave and proud citizens who are 
willing to volunteer to lay their life on the line and stand between a 
threat to our civilian population and advance the cause of freedom 
around the world. I think we have to hold them up as the greatest of 
our citizens and, frankly, stand behind the mission that they believe 
in.
  He sent the word back that he believed in what he was doing and it 
was making a huge difference in the world. That is why it is important 
for us to come to the floor; and I pulled these words out of my pocket 
as I heard the testimony on the floor, because I think we need to honor 
the life of Noah Harris and every other one like him.
  Now, our national security does hang in the balance as it relates to 
our energy security. The case is very clear, I believe, that we need a 
national energy policy, the first one in a generation. And for three 
consecutive Congresses, we have gotten close to having an agreement 
between the House and the Senate for a national energy policy, but we 
have not yet sent a bill to the President of the United States.
  We stand on the threshold of doing that today, because the House has 
passed a bill and the Senate is very, very close. I think they have had 
a cloture vote and they expect to pass the bill this coming Tuesday in 
the United States Senate so that we can go to conference and work out 
the differences and, ultimately, send a national energy policy to the 
President of the United States, hopefully in July, so that we can then 
send word to our private sector and anyone in the energy industry what 
the national policy is so those investments will follow.
  Now, here in the House, we have had some reorganization around this 
issue of energy. I serve on the House Policy Committee under the very 
able leadership of the gentleman from Arizona (Chairman Shadegg), and 
he recently reorganized the policy committee in the House to name a new 
Subcommittee on Energy and Technology and asked me to chair that 
subcommittee. I come to the floor tonight in that regard, and I want to 
discuss this issue of advancing tax policies and incentives to 
encourage energy independence, to make sure we have the energy 
resources for us to maintain our productivity as a Nation. I believe it 
is a win-win-win opportunity for the United States of America, and I 
will tell my colleagues why.
  I believe the 3 years that we balanced the budget here in the late 
1990s were a direct result of increased revenues to the Federal 
Treasury. Now, we did show some spending restraint for the first time 
in a generation by holding the growth of government spending below 
inflation and allowing revenues to exceed expenses, but it really was a 
revenue-generated effort to balance the budget. The revenues were 
generated largely because, for a sustained number of years, we led the 
world in the information explosion.

[[Page 14239]]



                              {time}  1715

  You think of Microsoft and you think of software and you think of the 
whole advancement of information technology this country led, in a 
major way, this breakthrough in the economy, and, as a result, record 
revenues with a sound robust economy were generated and we balanced the 
budget.
  I would also tell you that given the challenges we face in the wake 
of September 11, the likelihood that we balance the budget again is 
very low unless we have another sector of our economy that explodes 
with export-driven manufacturing technology that will cause revenues to 
dramatically climb. And I say that as a member of the Appropriations 
Committee, because if you eliminate all of the nondefense, nonhomeland 
security discretionary spending of the government, you would still be 
at a break-even. If you eliminated all of the nondefense, nonhomeland 
security, discretionary spending you would still either be at a budget 
deficit or very close.
  So it is very difficult to balance the budget unless you have 
increasing revenues. This whole sector called entech, energy 
technologies, presents that kind of an opportunity for this country to 
grow the U.S. economy, export energy solutions to the world, solve many 
of our own energy and homeland security problems, and serve the world 
right. It would actually cause such global leadership from the United 
States, that we would solve a whole lot of our problems all at once.
  A very prominent person in the energy sector that I know personally 
named Riley Bechtel, the chairman and CEO of one of the largest family-
held companies in this country, I think a fourth- or fifth-generation 
energy company called Bechtel National, he told me right after 
September 11 that we needed to understand that energy security is 
homeland security. Energy security is national security. And I think 
that is the approach that the Congress has taken today.
  And I will also tell you that a very prominent editorialist with the 
New York Times, Thomas Friedman, who sometimes I agree with and 
sometimes I do not, but he is a very bright man and he understands the 
world as well as anyone, he basically has said over and over again in 
the wake of September 11 that if our country will demonstrate global 
leadership on energy and the environment, we will help ourselves with 
the nations of the world that have had either envy or distaste for our 
country in the past, and in terms of foreign policy we will improve our 
position in the world.
  Before I go into the details of the comprehensive solution of this, I 
want to yield to one of the most prominent Members of the House, a 
person I came in with 11 years ago, a senior member of the Energy and 
Commerce Committee, from the State of New Hampshire, a person who has 
been a real leader on renewable energy.
  I assume he could be a conferee, I do not think they have been named 
yet, but he should be a conferee yet. That is up to the gentleman from 
Texas (Chairman Barton) the distinguished gentleman from New Hampshire 
(Mr. Bass).
  Mr. BASS. Mr. Speaker, in the 11 years that I have been in Congress I 
have been in Washington at 5:20 in the afternoon on Friday exactly 
twice. The first was when the Federal Government was shut down in 1995, 
and the second was last year in early October when we passed our 
omnibus bill on a Saturday morning and everybody stayed here Friday 
night.
  I go home on weekends. I am here today because my friend, the 
gentleman from Tennessee (Mr. Wamp), reserved this time to talk about 
one of my highest priorities, which is the development of alternative 
energy resources.
  Now, he is right. I serve on the Energy and Commerce Committee, and, 
as such, we have jurisdiction over energy matters, shared with the 
Science Committee, a little bit with the Ways and Means Committee. And 
it is a high priority.
  I voted against the energy bill last year when it came to Congress. I 
voted against it in the committee. And I did so because I felt that it 
really did not reflect a balanced approach to the development of our 
Nation's energy resources and energy priorities.
  You know, energy is not about Republicans or Democrats, about 
conservatives or liberals or moderates, or whatever. It is not about 
philosophy. It is really about region. But what binds all of the 
regions of this country together is our understanding that we have to 
have a cohesive and balanced energy program that gives every region of 
the country an opportunity to participate in what becomes a national 
role, where we are less dependent on foreign oil, where we are 
economically competitive, both nationally and internationally, and 
every region of the country has the opportunity to develop its own 
resources and do so on a level playing field with every other region of 
the country.
  Now, you say to yourself, well, why did not a single Senator from 
northeast of Pennsylvania vote for the energy bill last year? The 
answer is that the energy bill did not really address what was 
important for northeastern States. I am pleased to say that the energy 
bill that we sent to the Senate and that is currently under 
consideration in the Senate in a somewhat different form, but the 
differences will be worked out in conference, is much more balanced and 
I will tell you why.
  For one thing, it has a significant section added to the bill that 
would provide for rebates for the installation, purchase and 
installation of solar, wind, and biomass, heat and electricity 
generation systems, on a residential and light commercial basis, and 
authorizes for appropriation $1 billion for that purpose.
  Now, in the Northeast we do not have oil wells and gas wells. We do 
not have significant hydro, although we do have some. We did not have 
the kinds of energy resources that other parts of the country have, but 
we do have solar, we do have wind, and we have enormous biomass.
  In the 1970s when we had the great oil embargo and the gas lines, 
there was a big push for renewable energy. The Energy Research and 
Development Administration, ERDA for short, became the Department of 
Energy, and we had a national energy policy at the time.
  And there was a big push to develop biomass. But what it turned into 
essentially was the marketing of solar equipment that did not work 
particularly well, even though you got tax credits for it of biomass 
boilers that basically ran on logs that you shoveled in, two or three 
times a day. It was unreliable. It was dirty. And after a few years 
most of these systems were discontinued.
  The 21st century is different. I come here today as a convert, 
because I myself a year and a half ago converted my house from oil to 
wood pellets. My house, which is not small, used to burn about 3,000 
gallons of heating oil a year. Over the last 14 months, I have burned 
165 gallons of oil. I have burned approximately 15 tons of wood 
pellets.
  I have a boiler that, unfortunately, I had to buy; it was imported 
from Denmark, had to be shipped across the Atlantic Ocean. It was not 
cheap. But what it demonstrated was that for a Btu cost of about 90 
cents per gallon, I can heat my house with a system that is so 
sophisticated that nobody in the house knows that I am heating with 
wood.
  Everything is computer-controlled. Everything is automatically fed. 
It is clean. It is carbon neutral. And it is a resource that comes from 
essentially my own backyard. It can work in every household in America 
where you have access to these resources.
  The problem is we do not have any manufacturing capability in this 
country, because there is no demand. We are a country that has based 
our energy policy on nothing but oil, gas, and coal and the development 
of it.
  Little wonder that my region of the country is 85 or 90 percent 
dependent on number 2 heating oil in the winter time. We do not have 
those options available to us. But what this energy bill does is create 
the opportunity to develop demand for biomass, demand for wood energy.
  Also in New Hampshire, an old coal-fired plant over on the Piscataqua

[[Page 14240]]

River, the Shiller plant, is in the process of converting from coal to 
wood chips. I believe it is on the order of 200 megawatts. It is a very 
large facility. We are on the way to changing some of our energy 
resources in the Northeast, which will change the mix of the dynamic 
and end our dependence not only on foreign oil, but from oil everywhere 
else in the United States.
  I believe that we can, if we pass this energy bill, have a meaningful 
plan to develop the kinds of energy resources that we need in this 
country; wind, solar. Solar is no longer a bad roofing job, it is a 
technology that can really provide heat and electricity for houses all 
over the place, even in the North, where the sun is low in the winter 
months; that we can develop low-head hydro in an ecologically 
acceptable fashion so that we can have microenergy development.
  I have a constituent who is developing a very efficient sterling 
engine that could be utilized for water distillation, for electricity 
production, running on anything that produces heat. This is the kind of 
technology that we need to promote in America, that we need to promote 
through legislation, that we need to promote in order to lessen our 
dependence on traditional energy sources and imported energy resources.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my friend from Tennessee (Mr. Wamp) for 
giving me the opportunity to bring to the Congress my commitment to 
this important priority.
  If we as a Congress can do what is right with the energy bill, 
Americans will be better off for many years to come.
  Mr. WAMP. I thank the gentleman from New Hampshire (Mr. Bass) for his 
leadership at home and here in Washington and I wish him Godspeed as he 
travels back to New Hampshire this weekend.
  As the cochairman here in the House of the Energy Efficiency and 
Renewable Energy Caucus, which is about half of the House, not quite 
equally divided but close to equally divided between Democrats and 
Republicans, I particularly appreciate his leadership in the area of 
renewable energy.
  You know, that caucus has been around here for a number of years. And 
I have had the privilege for the last 5 years to chair it with the 
gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Udall). And the Renewable Energy and 
Energy Efficiency Caucus here in the Congress held an expo this week 
here in Washington with Energy Secretary, Samuel Bodman, participating.
  And we had a big gathering here mid-week. As we kicked off this focus 
this week here in Washington on energy efficiency and renewable energy 
technologies, and the solutions to our energy problems in this country, 
I said that we coordinated the activities of the conference; but one 
thing we did not coordinate is that very morning it was announced that 
we had a record high price for crude oil at $60 a barrel on Wednesday 
of this week, and it was also announced that we had a record high for 
natural gas prices, two of the major energy sources that we consume in 
this very productive country of ours, oil and natural gas, and we began 
our conference this year on the alternatives and the energy efficiency 
program on that very day.
  So we did not coordinate it, it is unfortunate, but we need to do 
something about it. That is what brings us to the floor and brings us 
to this agenda and this important issue.
  Last year I had the privilege of traveling to Colorado with the 
gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Udall) and touring NREL, the National 
Renewable Energy Laboratory right outside of Denver. Unbelievable 
research done there, particularly in the areas of renewables, things 
like hydrogen fuel cell technologies as well.
  They have energy efficient programs, and they are really our 
country's lab, though, on renewable energy sources, from solar to 
hydro, wind, different sources that we have available to us that are 
alternatives to those major areas of energy consumption like coal and 
petroleum and natural gas.
  Now, I also represent the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, 
Tennessee, which is probably the premier laboratory in our country for 
energy efficiency and building programs, ways to make our construction 
industry and our residential home building industry more efficient.
  And we have just recently brought a bill up that will be introduced 
in the coming days, authored principally by me, but by the gentleman 
from Texas (Mr. Hall) and the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. Udall) have 
joined. We have a bipartisan bill that will raise the standards for 
energy efficiency in building materials across the country, which is 
certainly one way that we can save energy.
  And part of our goal here is not just to increase supplies, but to 
reduce the demand by energy efficiency, energy conservation and 
savings. We must do both in order to maintain our level of 
productivity. But we need to recognize when we are talking about oil, 
that 42 percent of all oil in this country is used by personal vehicles 
in the transportation sector; cars. Forty-two percent of the oil. We 
have a very, very small percentage, like 2 percent or less of the 
world's oil reserves in this country, yet we use approximately one-
third of all of the oil in the world, and 42 percent of it goes to our 
own automobiles.

                              {time}  1730

  That is why it is so important that we begin to transition as quickly 
as possible into the alternative transportation systems of the future. 
I am encouraged by the interest in hybrid electric vehicles. Many of us 
see that as a bridge to the future, not totally the future because the 
technology is developing. But hybrids are now very much in demand, and 
most of your auto producers both now domestic and foreign that make 
hybrid vehicles have a huge backlog, and more and more of these 
companies are moving to that.
  As a matter of fact, I spoke this week to a major Toyota and Lexus 
dealer from my district named Bob McKamey who has been a national 
leader with both of those organizations. And he told me that in 5 years 
the trend in this industry is that many of the cars, maybe even most of 
the cars produced in the world 5 years from now, will have some 
technology of a hybrid electric option because the technology is 
getting so much better: the battery acceleration is so much better, the 
technology is advancing. And most of the new production facilities are 
going to have a place there. They will adapt the current manufacturing 
to make room for the hybrid production so that every consumer will have 
the option of going hybrid and doubling their gas mileage.
  As technology develops, then we will actually have a very good 
product in the marketplace. And the private sector is driving this, but 
the government needs to not only know what is going on but be partners 
with the private sector because, ultimately, I believe through the 
hybrid bridge and transition we will get to a hydrogen fuel cell, 
advancing the President's Freedom Car Initiative to where 15 years from 
now you can drive the hydrogen fuel cell vehicles in this country that 
are available in Washington, D.C. today or in New York City where Shell 
Oil and GM have these partnerships with the permanent hydrogen filling 
station in Washington, one in New York City, and some 40 automobiles 
and vans on the road that are completely hydrogen fuel cell driven.
  I have driven one, and you cannot tell the difference between driving 
it and driving a normal car. The problem is they cost about $400,000 
each today because the technology is not developed, the mass production 
is not developed to make them affordable for average citizens, but that 
is going to happen. And everyone in the industry says that is going to 
happen, that 400,000 will come down to 50,000. And then you will 
actually have something that a lot of families will drive that will be 
oil free and we would be petroleum free for those vehicles, securing 
our own energy future.
  I think we are going to have both for a good long time, but I think 
this is an important goal of energy independence so we are not as 
reliant on oil in this country as we are today.
  Now, back where I live in the Tennessee Valley, between our assets in

[[Page 14241]]

Huntsville and Oak Ridge and the technology drivers in our valley, we 
have clearly positioned ourselves to make these next-generation 
vehicles. Because of the leadership of our former Governor, now a 
United States Senator, Lamar Alexander, the State of Tennessee is third 
in the Nation in automobile manufacturing. We were not even in this 
game when I was born a few years ago, but today we are third. We now 
have assets. Like in the heart of the Tennessee Valley where I live in 
the Enterprise South Industrial Park, one of the top megasites for 
industrial investment in the southeast, right on a major interstate, 
Interstate 75, which virtually everyone uses that is west of 95 going 
north and south, right there is this major economic part ready for, 
with all the assets and infrastructure necessary, a major auto plant 
investment in next-generation vehicles. And I am excited about this.
  We also have research institutions like the Advanced Transportation 
Technology Initiative, ATTI, in our city advancing through test tracks, 
these next-generation vehicles and exactly how the technology should go 
to make that the most efficient.
  I believe, too, we need an intermodal transportation system. In the 
wake of September 11 when we had an attack on our aviation industry, 
many people asked where are we in this country on high-speed rail. 
Because in terms of mass transit, aviation is the primary way to move 
people rapidly from one place to another in this country. And a true 
intermodal system would say that we have a mass transit system by rail 
as well, with at least three major corridors in this country. We 
believe one of those should come through our region, as well, because 
of the incredible growth of the Atlanta airport 100 miles south of 
where I live.
  In this transportation bill that is now pending before the House and 
the Senate, it has already been through both bodies, the conference 
report is pending, there is a beginning for high-speed rail. The first 
connection, I believe, that is under study and some engineering in this 
bill is between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. The distinguished 
transportation chairman in the House, the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. 
Young), should be commended for advancing high-speed rail as a clean 
alternative to the traditional energy source utilization to rapidly 
move people around.
  Go to Europe, you will see high-speed rail. Here the automotive 
industry drove a lot of investments for a hundred years; and as a 
result, we do not have the kind of rail links that we need, I believe. 
At least three major arteries are needed to make our mass transit 
system and quick mobilization of people more intermodal, where you need 
to have multiple systems, particularly in this day of terrorist 
threats, because if they attack one mode and you have another, people 
will shift to that.
  As a matter of fact, for days people could not get out of New York 
City after September 11. Many people ended up hiring taxi drivers to 
drive them from places like New York City to Atlanta, Georgia. I know 
one particularly.
  So we have another sector that really needs attention and that is the 
whole electricity sector. We have had brownouts, blackouts, energy 
shortages, problems in California, problems in the Northeast. We are 
using a whole lot of natural gas now for electricity. And that is going 
to be very difficult in the future because we have the highest natural 
gas prices in our country. My home is heated with natural gas, many of 
my neighbors' homes are, and the price is now very hard to afford. And 
I think we must advance a national prototype-design nuclear reactor 
program to advance nuclear in this country for electricity. It is a 
clean, safe alternative.
  We now have Yucca Mountain fully developing, fully supported by our 
country, by the Congress, by the President. At least we have passed the 
legislation, and the President supports in his budget request and 
leadership from our Subcommittee on Energy and Water which I serve on, 
extraordinary leadership from the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman 
Hobson), to advance the Yucca Mountain proposals so that we take care 
of the waste stream at the end of the nuclear production cycle so that 
when a reactor produces electricity, really, the only liability 
associated with that is the waste stream. But if Yucca Mountain is 
ready for that waste to be shipped to and stored safely, then we can 
continue to develop nuclear reactors in this country.
  This program was almost at a standstill for many years; but within 
the TVA system where I live, we actually will have a new nuclear 
reactor come online next year, the first in a number of years. And I 
believe with DOE's partnership with TVA, you will see even another 
nuclear reactor come online in the next 5 years. And as we have an 
advanced prototype national design, we can efficiently, effectively, 
safely bring on this alternative because nuclear power in terms of air 
quality is as clean as you get, and we need to advance that. But I do 
believe because coal is such an abundant resource in this country, we 
must advance all the clean coal technologies that we can as well.
  In closing, I just want to say a clean energy policy which focuses on 
securing our independence from foreign sources of energy will create a 
robust economy as we advance technologies, use American know-how and 
ingenuity to try to create these solutions for the whole world and make 
them and ship them to the world.
  I think it is such a win-win-win that when you think of green you do 
not just think of the environment; you think of money and the resources 
that can be generated by advancing the energy solutions for tomorrow. I 
cannot think of an issue that is more important to permanently securing 
our independence and liberty than the energy utilization. It is an area 
that, frankly, some of our enemies almost hold us hostage to, and that 
is over energy sources; and we need to move as rapidly as we possibly 
can without making big mistakes to secure our energy independence.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I want to transition quickly over to another 
major issue that I do not think we talk enough about.
  We have the most wonderful health care system in the world, and we 
have had such for a long, long time. And the professionals, the 
providers, the people in our health care industry should be commended. 
But just in the last 10 years since I got to Congress, it is outrageous 
what kind of stress our health care system is under.
  The providers are underpaid. Many of them are so overlitigated that 
they just give up the ghost. They leave the profession. And I am very, 
very concerned about our health care industry.
  The problem really is two-fold. One is that our private fee-for-
service health care system is at risk of collapse. And I know that 
sounds really, really bold to say that; but I really believe if we are 
going to be honest about our health care system, we need to talk about 
the stress points in our health care system and the problems it faces.
  I do not think enough is yet done around here on this particular 
issue. I think there are even some people that would like to see the 
government take it over. So maybe some of them are not doing enough to 
help us in this cause. But the fact is we need to save our fee-for-
service private health care delivery system in this country.
  Then the second part of this problem is that the government is so 
into health care with Medicaid and Medicare that we are not going to be 
able to afford these two major government programs given the current 
health care trends of Americans today. We will not be able to afford 
Medicaid and Medicare if Americans continue to live the way they live 
today.
  The biggest problems are with obesity, which now rivals tobacco as 
the largest health care challenge in this country; and type II 
diabetes, which is connected to obesity, is a huge problem, and I am 
the most concerned about it among young people because once a young 
child is sentenced to type II diabetes or chronic obesity in their 
adolescence, they may never get well. It is effectively a death 
sentence. And many of them do not know by the time they are in the 
fourth grade exactly

[[Page 14242]]

what they need to be doing. So a lot of this is education.
  Personal responsibility is at the heart of some of the solutions. 
Some of it is genetic. I am not a health care expert, but my view is 
about half of what we are we are born with and the other half we 
acquire. Sometimes we acquire habits that lead to poor health. 
Sometimes people are born with it. I recognize that. So we have to 
balance this out and be fair and reasonable, but I want to give you 
some facts from the Centers for Disease Control and the American Heart 
and Stroke Society.
  Fact: obesity and physical inactivity are risk factors for heart 
disease and stroke. About 28 percent of Americans age 18 or older 
reported no leisure time physical activity in the last 30 days. Less 
active, less fit persons have a 30 to 50 percent greater risk of 
developing high blood pressure, which is a risk factor for heart 
disease and stroke. Physical inactivity is more prevalent among women 
than men, among African American and Hispanics than whites, among older 
than younger adults, and among the less affluent than the more 
affluent; 107 million American adults are overweight. In addition, an 
estimated 5 million children, ages 6 to 17, are considered overweight.
  The Centers for Disease Control estimates that more than 300,000 
people die each year due to diseases associated with physical 
inactivity.
  They give a lot of recommendations on what to do about this. One 
thing I want to tell you is that here in the Congress we have decided 
to step up and lead by example, and we have formed an organization to 
do just that. We believe that fitness, nutrition, and preventative 
health care measures are all components to this personal responsibility 
and this corporate responsibility to try to solve our health care 
crisis and lower the cost of health care, and in doing so expand the 
availability of quality health care to everyone in this country.
  The Surgeon General has made his recommendations. They are in writing 
here, and I will be adding those to go with my testimony today, 
recommendations that the Surgeon General has made for children and 
adults.
  But 2\1/2\ years ago, because I believe that we will not be able to 
sustain these government programs of Medicare and Medicaid unless we 
become more fit and more active, I founded the Congressional Fitness 
Caucus. I co-chair it also with the gentleman from Colorado (Mr. 
Udall). And our goal here with about 100 Members of Congress over the 
last 2\1/2\ years is to educate, to advocates, and to legislate.
  In the area of education, we encourage our Members, and they do 
regularly go out into the schools and give speeches and maybe put on 
some gym clothes and do events with children, geared at the elementary 
age so that by the fourth grade young people either at home or at 
school, and we cannot get into their homes so we can go to their 
schools, we can say to them that the human body is made to move. The 
human body is made, I believe by God, to be active and to burn 
calories. And you sleep better, you are more productive, you have a 
much higher quality of life if you get a certain amount of physical 
activity.
  Now when I grew up, when kids had extra time, you might catch them on 
the playground or out running around or playing a pick-up football game 
or climbing a tree or building a tree house.

                              {time}  1745

  Today, you might find them more often inside on a computer. This is 
great in a way, as long as it is just part of their life and not all of 
their life, but a lot of kids spend so much time in front of a 
television screen or a computer screen, and then they go to the closet 
and they get food that might not be as balanced as it needs to be, and 
they do not get that physical activity.
  The human body is made such that you can eat a whole lot as long as 
you burn it up and you are fine, but there is a balance here. It is 
called calories intake versus calories burned, and the balance has got 
to stay close to the same, and many, many young people do not 
understand this. There is not the physical activity necessary for them 
to be healthy.
  There are big bodies, small bodies. Everybody's made different. Our 
DNA is different. Our makeup is different. Our genetics are different. 
Our moms and dads are different. I am not talking about that. I am 
talking about a balance of activity in your life to where you are 
burning the calories that you are taking in your body so that young 
people, when they get to the fourth grade, understand some of the ill 
effects of sedentary living, couch potatoes. We cannot afford the 
trends that are happening in our society.
  So part of it is an education process. I tell young people when I go 
into these schools, do not ever use the F word, fat. Do not ever use 
that word and do not ever criticize somebody else for how they look but 
encourage them to go outside and play games with you. If there is a kid 
on the sidelines that needs to be in, kicking the ball and running the 
bases, put them in, encourage them, take them out to walk. If you are a 
mom or dad, set up some activity for your children to be active in the 
evening. So there are a lot of things we can do.
  We educate. We advocate. We hosted events on the Mall. We brought 
professional sports figures in. We used the media to get the word out 
about the effects of inactivity and sedentary living because this is a 
major health care problem in our country, this Type II diabetes and 
obesity, and we can do something about it.
  These are called preventable illnesses. Preventable illnesses, 
meaning we can do something about it, and I believe leadership is 
called to this issue, and then we need to legislate from time to time.
  It is hard to regulate people into better behavior, but you can pass 
bills that may incentivize them to better behavior, use our tax code to 
create incentives, and I will get on to those in a minute.
  We do have a national program that the Bush administration embraced 
early on called America On the Move. In Tennessee, we have a part of 
that program called Tennessee On the Move, and most of our States now 
have On the Move programs, grassroots statewide organizations designed 
throughout the year to promote activities and events and communication 
and education, newsletters across the State encouraging restaurants to 
have printed on their menu ways to take 100 calories off of your diet.
  Let me tell you that the rule of holes is when you are in a hole the 
first thing you should do is quit digging. So, in the obesity hole, we 
have got to figure out what can we do to not become more obese and then 
what we can do to turn around and go the other way.
  It is this simple. If an average American burned 100 calories more 
per day and consumed 100 calories less, this country would not become 
any more obese. As a matter of fact, we would start going the other 
way. A hundred calories more burned may be taking the steps through the 
Capitol each day instead of the elevator. It may be parking the 
furtherest distance at the supermarket instead of the closest distance. 
It is little things that can burn an extra 100 calories.
  Intaking 100 calories fewer may be as simple as going from a Coke to 
a Diet Coke and taking 100 calories more out of your diet, because we 
will, as a Nation, not become any more obese if we will consume 100 
fewer calories a day on the average and burn 100 more.
  Those are simple approaches, first steps. Walk at night after dinner 
as a family. Husband and wife, encourage each other 3 or 4 days a week 
to get just a basic amount of physical activity. You do not have to be 
a marathon runner. You do not have to be a superduper athlete. You have 
just got to develop one way to do it. If you have got a problem with 
your leg, go slow, but be walking. The human body was made to move. 
America On the Move is a great program Tennessee On the Move is a great 
program.
  I want to also talk about other programs that are very, very helpful. 
Recently, two pretty important athletes, Peyton and Archie Manning, 
came around the Hill lobbying for Physical

[[Page 14243]]

Education for Progress, the PEP funding, and I am on the Committee on 
Appropriations. We all weighed in, and the gentleman from Ohio 
(Chairman Regula) responded, and this bill that just passed the House 
today included $73,408,000 for this national program to promote 
physical education through our schools because physical education in 
our schools, frankly, has not been focused on enough.
  I remember when I was young, we wanted one of those T-shirts. We 
wanted to go out and do the President's physical fitness contest. We 
wanted to do push-ups and sit-ups, and today, I do not think there is 
enough physical education in our schools. I have asked the President to 
consider amendments. I have asked the gentleman from Ohio (Chairman 
Boehner) here in the House, our chairman of the Committee on Education 
and the Workforce, to consider amendments to No Child Left Behind that 
would encourage physical fitness in our schools.
  Today, because of the testing of the other subject matter, there are 
schools that report to me that they are actually having to squeeze out 
physical education because they have limited resources and they have to 
put those where they know they are going to be tested so that their 
school system or their school is not out of compliance under the 
standards of No Child Left Behind. I support those standards. I think 
it is a good approach, but let us not leave out physical education.
  Let me tell you, Thomas Jefferson said 200 years ago that a child who 
is not physically well cannot learn and I agree. That is so true today. 
A child who is not physically sound cannot learn. If they do not get 
enough sleep, they cannot learn. If they are not physically well, their 
attention span is not there, and today, we would have a better bottom 
line if children in every educational setting were required to do a 
certain amount of physical activity.
  I offered a bill earlier this year called the Workforce Health 
Improvement Program. We have now got 32 cosponsors signed up here at 
the desk. This gives tax incentives to companies and institutions for 
providing fitness facilities to their employees. Again, use our tax 
code to incentivize better behavior. How many people in this country 
would invest in something like that if they knew they had a tax break 
to stay more physically active and to have some regimen of physical 
activity in their life?
  I want to advocate for community health centers. Preventative health 
care is not just fitness and exercise. It is mammograms. It is making 
sure that you have your blood pressure taken. It is making sure a 
health professional sees you on a regular basis. That is preventative 
health care so you do not wait till you are sick to walk in the door of 
the emergency room and run up the cost of health care. Preventative 
health care says you take better care of yourself physically, even 
mentally. It is all connected. The holistic approach says physical, 
mental and spiritual health will lead to a productive life with a high 
quality of life, and we all know, I believe, the benefits, but the 
community health center approach in the community, to get your 
preventative health care and your maintenance of your health care, is 
also very important, and in this bill, we just funded $1.8 billion for 
community health centers in this Labor-Ed bill that passed today.
  I also want to advocate another program called the Healthy 
Communities Access Program, HCAP. HCAP was funded last year at $83 
million across the country, and this year, unfortunately, in this bill, 
we were not able to find any money for it, but I am hopeful when we go 
to the Senate that we will find that money because this is a real 
market-driven solution.
  These are the networks at the local level designed to fit the needs 
of that community. We have got one in Chattanooga, Tennessee, that is 
very successful where all of the providers banded together, and they 
say how can we refer people that do not have health insurance, there 
are 43 million of them in this country today, to good preventative 
health care, treatment, checkups and even access points because a lot 
of our providers are willing to give away their care if they know it 
solves this problem and maintains our fee-for-services health care 
system.
  Back in the day, doctors used to give away a lot of their time. 
Today, because the government's so involved in health care, many of 
them cannot even give away their time. You cannot give away your time 
for Medicare delivery, by the way. I think it is against the law.
  So doctors are disincentivized to actually help people who need 
health care the most, and many times this is just good, common, 
routine, preventative health care. The Healthy Communities Access 
Program has got this high cost benefit ratio. For every dollar the 
government invests, it saves $6 in the health care delivery system of 
that community. Again, Medicaid and Medicare cannot sustain these kind 
of costs.
  Guess what happens if one of the 43 million uninsured people gets 
really sick? Oftentimes, they will walk into one of the safety net 
hospitals that have to cover them by Federal law. They walk into 
Erlanger Medical Center in my hometown of Chattanooga, and when they 
walk in, it is too late in terms of preventing the calamity and their 
costs. Maybe it is too late to even save their life. It is certainly 
too late to save money because their chronic health care needs got out 
of hand.
  This network keeps that from happening, and that is why it is one of 
the solutions. It is preventative health care. That is where we need to 
invest our dollars.
  Let me just say in closing, because my hour is almost up, we need to 
learn sometimes from other countries. I was in Japan a few years ago, 
and I was very impressed that early in the morning, sun had just come 
up, these people are outside. You just kind of look and watch, and the 
senior citizens are out exercising. They are in a group, grandmas, 
granddads, and then the children are watching, and they are out doing 
their morning exercise. Now, these people are healthy, and in many 
cases they are healthier than we are.
  We actually may have more technological superiority to them. We have 
got the great pharmaceutical industry that has found all these new 
inventions, but they have got it right in terms of the physical 
benefits of exercise, and they know that the human body is made to 
move, to move, not to sit still. We have too many people gaining 
unnecessary weight in this country. It is a fact, and there is 
something we can do about it. They call them preventable health care 
challenges, and preventative health care is the solution.
  We cannot buy our way out of this problem. We cannot even invent our 
way out of this problem. This problem can be addressed with simple 
solutions, develop these small first steps towards better health care, 
and I think the element here is personal responsibility. Something that 
I believe the Republican party stands for in this country still is 
personal responsibility. We are responsible for ourselves and then our 
family and then our community. The government should be last, not 
first.
  So let us take better care of ourselves, and let us make sure that 
the children of America know that if they want to live a productive 
life, one of the basic things they need to do is personal hygiene, good 
sleep habits, good nutrition habits and make sure that when it is time 
to play, they do not do it on a video screen as much as they go outside 
and sweat a little. That would be good for this next generation. I 
think they could work a little more, sweat a little more, and we would 
all be the better for it.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the Chair's indulgence, and the 
material I referred to previously, I will insert into the Record at 
this point.

The Surgeon General's Call To Action to Prevent and Decrease Overweight 
                              and Obesity


         THE PROBLEM OF OVERWEIGHT IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

       In 1999, 13 percent of children aged 6 to 11 years and 14 
     percent of adolescents aged 12 to 19 years in the United 
     States were overweight. This prevalence has nearly tripled 
     for adolescents in the past 2 decades.
       Risk factors for heart disease, such as high cholesterol 
     and high blood pressure, occur

[[Page 14244]]

     with increased frequency in overweight children and 
     adolescents compared to children with a healthy weight.
       Type 2 diabetes, previously considered an adult disease, 
     has increased dramatically in children and adolescents. 
     Overweight and obesity are closely linked to type 2 diabetes.
       Overweight adolescents have a 70 percent chance of becoming 
     overweight or obese adults. This increases to 80 percent if 
     one or more parent is overweight or obese. Overweight or 
     obese adults are at risk for a number of health problems 
     including heart disease, type 2 diabetes, high blood 
     pressure, and some forms of cancer.
       The most immediate consequence of overweight as perceived 
     by the children themselves is social discrimination. This is 
     associated with poor self-esteem and depression.


                        THE CAUSES OF OVERWEIGHT

       Overweight in children and adolescents is generally caused 
     by lack of physical activity, unhealthy eating patterns, or a 
     combination of the two, with genetics and lifestyle both 
     playing important roles in determining a child's weight.
       Our society has become very sedentary. Television, computer 
     and video games contribute to children's inactive lifestyles.
       43 percent of adolescents watch more than 2 hours of 
     television each day.
       Children, especially girls, become less active as they move 
     through adolescence.


        DETERMINATION OF OVERWEIGHT IN CHILDREN AND ADOLESCENTS

       Doctors and other health care professionals are the best 
     people to determine whether your child or adolescent's weight 
     is healthy, and they can help rule out rare medical problems 
     as the cause of unhealthy weight.
       A Body Mass Index (BMI) can be calculated from measurements 
     of height and weight. Health professionals often use a BMI 
     ``growth chart'' to help them assess whether a child or 
     adolescent is overweight.
       A physician will also consider your child or adolescent's 
     age and growth patterns to determine whether his or her 
     weight is healthy.


                          GENERAL SUGGESTIONS

       Let your child know he or she is loved and appreciated 
     whatever his or her weight. An overweight child probably 
     knows better than anyone else that he or she has a weight 
     problem. Overweight children need support, acceptance, and 
     encouragement from their parents.
       Focus on your child's health and positive qualities, not 
     your child's weight.
       Try not to make your child feel different if he or she is 
     overweight but focus on gradually changing your family's 
     physical activity and eating habits.
       Be a good role model for your child. If your child sees you 
     enjoying healthy foods and physical activity, he or she is 
     more likely to do the same now and for the rest of his or her 
     life.
       Realize that an appropriate goal for many overweight 
     children is to maintain their current weight while growing 
     normally in height.


                     PHYSICAL ACTIVITY SUGGESTIONS

       Be physically active. It is recommended that Americans 
     accumulate at least 30 minutes (adults) or 60 minutes 
     (children) of moderate physical activity most days of the 
     week. Even greater amounts of physical activity may be 
     necessary for the prevention of weight gain, for weight loss, 
     or for sustaining weight loss.
       Plan family activities that provide everyone with exercise 
     and enjoyment.
       Provide a safe environment for your children and their 
     friends to play actively; encourage swimming; biking, 
     skating, ball sports, and fun activities.
       Reduce the time of time you and your family spend in 
     sedentary activities, such as watching TV or playing video 
     games. Limit TV time to less than 2 hours a day.


                       HEALTHY EATING SUGGESTIONS

       Follow the Dietary Guidelines for healthy eating 
     (www.health.gov/dietaryguidelines).
       Guide your family's choices rather than dictate foods.
       Encourage your child to eat when hungry and to eat slowly.
       Eat meals together as a family as often as possible.
       Carefully cut down on the amount of fat and calories in 
     your family's diet.
       Don't place your child on a restrictive diet.
       Avoid the use of food as a reward.
       Avoid withholding food as punishment.
       Children should be encouraged to drink water and to limit 
     intake of beverages with added sugars, such as soft drinks, 
     fruit juice drinks, and sports drinks.
       Plan for healthy snacks.
       Stock the refrigerator with fat-free or low-fat milk, fresh 
     fruit, and vegetables instead of soft drinks or snacks that 
     are high in fat, calories, or added sugars and low in 
     essential nutrients.
       Aim to eat at least 5 servings of fruits and vegetables 
     each day.
       Discourage eating meals or snacks while watching TV.
       Eating a healthy breakfast is a good way to start the day 
     and may be important in achieving and maintaining a healthy 
     weight.


                      IF YOUR CHILD IS OVERWEIGHT

       Many overweight children who are still growing will not 
     need to lose weight, but can reduce their rate of weight gain 
     so that they can ``grow into'' their weight.
       Your child's diet should be safe and nutritious. It should 
     include all of the Recommended Dietary Allowances (RDAs) for 
     vitamins, minerals, and protein and contain the foods from 
     the major Food Guide Pyramid groups. Any weight-loss diet 
     should be low in calories (energy) only, not in essential 
     nutrients.
       Even with extremely overweight children, weight loss should 
     be gradual.
       Crash diets and diet pills can compromise growth and are 
     not recommended by many health care professionals.
       Weight lost during a diet is frequency regained unless 
     children are motivated to change their eating habits and 
     activity levels for a lifetime.
       Weight control must be considered a lifelong effort.
       Any weight management program for children should be 
     supervised by a physician.

                          ____________________