[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 154 (2008), Part 9]
[House]
[Pages 11863-11864]
[From the U.S. 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 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

[[Page 11864]]

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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