Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Speaker, I want to urge the Speaker of the House to join with our leader, John Boehner, in lowering the price of gasoline. They can do it immediately simply by holding a press conference and announcing we're going to work together in a nonpartisan way for the good of America to open up domestic energy sources by drilling in the United States. We're the only Nation on the face of the Earth that will not use our own natural resources. This is just fundamental common sense. Schlumberger and Shell have said that there is more shale oil in three Western States than all the oil in the Middle East combined.

We could open up the Arctic National Wildlife Reserve. Congress now can move, and in a bipartisan way, to bring down the price of oil simply by announcing we're moving to open up these domestic sources. The marketplace will respond and the price of gas and the price of oil will drop. This is so simple, it's so easy, it's so good for America.

Let's all stand together without regard to party for the benefit of this Nation, which is hurting so much from high gas prices, and say we are going to use American resources for America to create good, high-paying American jobs.

Drill in America in a safe, environmentally clean way, and bring down the price of gas today.

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Mr. Speaker, I want to thank my colleagues. Our pride and support for NASA is, indeed, bipartisan. Without regard to where we come from in this Nation or our party origins, we share that great pride in the accomplishments of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration. They've touched our lives in so many ways. I have always admired NASA, particularly as an amateur astronomer, as a native Houstonian.

I have passed this bill the last two Congresses, and for whatever reason, it has had problem escaping the gravitational pull of the Senate. And with the help of my good friend, Al Green, and Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee we passed it again this year.

This is going to be a remarkable and beautiful coin set that will contain a $50 high relief gold coin commemorating the lives lost in space. Those astronauts who gave their lives will be honored and recognized in that $50 high relief gold coin, with on the front coin a scientifically accurate image of the Sun and the reverse, a design commemorating those astronauts' sacrifice.

The other coins will represent each one of the planets in the solar system, with the front of the coin with a scientifically accurate image of that planet and then the reverse of the coin with a design honoring the NASA flight center that was responsible for missions to that planet.

And then, of course, now that Pluto has been called a dwarf planet, the Pluto coin will have a reverse that honors the Hubble telescope and the Goddard Space Flight Center and the remarkable achievements of the Hubble telescope.

The proceeds of this coin will go to fund the NASA Families Assistance Fund. Those families who have lost a loved one in the space program will benefit directly from the sale of these coins.

The Ronald McNair Education Science Literary Foundation will benefit from the sale of these coins. The Challenger Center for Space Science Education to increase interest in math, science and technology will benefit from the sale of this coin. And then finally, the Smithsonian Institute, National Air and Space Museum, will benefit from the sale of this coin.

And because of the difficulties with the gravitational pull of the Senate, as my friend Mr. Price so eloquently points out, because this authorization bill is coming out a little late this year, the changes the Senate made are good ones, and that is to allow the Mint to sell the coins this year through December 31 of 2008, but to continue to mint them through next year so that people will have a chance to order them and the Mint will have plenty of time to complete the designs and to market them.

It is going to be a beautiful set that the Mint estimates will raise a great deal of money for the benefit of the families, the benefit of these educational funds, and for the benefit of the National Air and Space Museum.

I'm very grateful to my colleagues from Texas, Congresswoman Sheila Jackson-Lee, my good friend Al Green, and my good friend Congressman Tom Price of the Georgia delegation, next to Texas my favorite delegation in the United States Congress.

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Speaker Cuellar, it's perfectly appropriate that you're in the chair today because you and I have served together in the Texas House, and we have worked together, Mr. Speaker, in cooperation with our friend, Congressman Ciro Rodriguez of Del Rio. You and I and Ciro have worked together to successfully implement a program that I want to single out for praise tonight.

In the Laredo sector and the Del Rio sector, the immigration laws of this country are being enforced with a zero tolerance in a program called Operation Streamline. With the full support of the local community that you represent, Mr. Speaker, because the crime rate in Laredo has dropped 70 percent--excuse me; in Del Rio we have seen a 70 percent drop. I think you have seen about a 60 percent drop in the crime rate in the Laredo sector as a direct result of simply enforcing existing law in a team effort, Mr. Speaker, between the Border Patrol, the U.S. Marshals, the prosecutors, the judges, the magistrates, and the sheriffs, with their local Congressman, Congressman Cuellar. You, Mr. Speaker, Ciro Rodriguez, and myself on the Appropriations Committee, we have been able to bring together that team approach in a bipartisan way that has resulted in a dramatic decline in the crime rate. The illegal crossings in the Del Rio sector are now at the lowest level they have been since the Border Patrol started keeping statistics in 1973.

I bring this to the attention of the House tonight, Mr. Speaker, first of all, to congratulate and praise those fine men and women in the law enforcement community of the Border Patrol in Del Rio and Laredo, also in the Yuma sector, where this is working so well. In particular, in the Laredo and Del Rio sectors we have seen real success because of the teamwork of those law enforcement officers and the judges and the cooperation we have seen at an unprecedented level between members of both parties in making sure the community and the Nation are safe in those sectors.

I am working with you now, Mr. Speaker, as well as with the local Members of Congress in rolling out Operation Streamline, it's called, the zero tolerance program, in the Rio Grande Valley sector. So that the goal is, of course, from the mouth of the Rio Grande now, up through the Del Rio sector, Lake Amastad, that the border will be secure.

Unfortunately, Mr. Speaker, it is a very different story in Tucson, Arizona. In Tucson, Arizona, the local U.S. Attorney refuses to enforce existing law, and in Tucson, if you are arrested by the Border Patrol, for example, in Del Rio or Laredo, you have a 100 percent chance of being prosecuted and serving some time in jail, obviously with the exception of women and children. The officer will use their good judgment and their good heart.

But if you're arrest in Del Rio or Laredo, you're going to jail. If you're arrested in Tucson, Arizona, Mr. Speaker, carrying less than a quarter ton of dope, you have a 99.6 percent chance of nerve going to jail, and you will probably be home in time for dinner.

It's an unbelievable and outrageous situation that I have worked on behind the scenes as quietly as I can with the Department of Justice, with the U.S. Attorney out there, Diane Humetewa, who refuses to met with me, who refuses to talk to me, who refuses to cooperate. She, to this day, Mr. Speaker, refuses to do anything to improve the prosecution rate in the Arizona sector of the border. As a result, those officers' lives are in danger. As a result of her refusal to enforce the law, the lives of the people of Arizona are in danger. This Nation is in danger because of the refusal of the U.S. Attorney in Arizona, Diane Humetewa, to do her job.

Frankly, I am sick and tired of it, and it needs to be brought to the attention of the American people here on the floor because we have found a bipartisan solution to this. We have found a solution that people on the border support.

You represent the Laredo sector, Mr. Speaker. I know your community, the people you represent are thrilled with the reduction in the crime rate. It has been a team effort. There are no party labels when it comes to Texans. My good friend, Sheila Jackson-Lee, will be speaking in a moment, and we are Texans first. There are no party labels when it comes to what is good for Texas and the Nation.

We have found a solution, Mr. Speaker, in Operation Streamline and the Zero Tolerance Program, enforcing existing law with existing resources and existing personnel in a unified team effort, and it's about time for the U.S. Attorney in Arizona to get with the program and recognize that she has an essential role in protecting this Nation.

Frankly, Mr. Speaker, if the U.S. Attorney in Arizona will not enforce the law and live up to her oath of office, I think she ought to find another job. It's about time for her to just step aside. It's unacceptable for a U.S. Attorney to refuse to enforce the law. Those officers' lives are in danger.

We on the Appropriations Committee, I serve on the Homeland Security subcommittee, Mr. Speaker, we sent 40 additional U.S. Attorneys, prosecutors to the southwest border with specific instructions that those attorneys be used to prosecute border crime. The U.S. Attorney in Arizona got 21 of them, and she will not use them to protect the border or this Nation.

Mr. Speaker, we have done great work in Laredo and Del Rio, and the U.S. Attorney in Arizona needs to get with the program and enforce the law with zero tolerance or find another job.

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Mr. Speaker, at a time of record national debt and deficit, at a time when gasoline prices are now well over $4, when oil is over $130 a barrel and Mexico is sitting on one of the largest oil reserves in the world, it is inexcusable, it is intolerable for us to send one dime to the Mexican Government when they can afford to pay for this equipment themselves.

But even more importantly than that, our southern border not secure. We should not send a dime to Mexico until our own American law enforcement officers have the resources they need to secure the border once and for all; not one dime to Mexico until the American border is secure.

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Mr. Speaker, I think it's important for the American people to understand that throughout the history of this Congress and this Nation that party divisions in time of war have always ended at the water's edge, until today.

Tragically, for this Congress, for this House, for the Appropriations Committee, the Speaker of the House has decided to unilaterally impose on the will of the entire Nation this appropriations bill without the benefit of a hearing, without the benefit of amendments, without the benefit of input not just from the Republican Members, Mr. Speaker, but from the Democrat Members.

It's, I think, a terrible precedent to set for this great committee that I am so proud to be a member of. I know that my colleague, Mr. Lewis, and my colleague, Chairman Obey, are both men of good will and good hearts. I know this is, I think, a particularly sad day for the institution and the Nation where 300 million Americans are not given an opportunity to be heard on a question of national security as important as the issue of funding our troops is. Never before in the history of this institution have the entire committees, the Congress been shut out of this process.

On the aftermath of 9/11, when you could stand in front of the Capitol Building and still smell the Pentagon burning, the Congress came together and by unanimous consent agreed to approve a supplemental appropriations bill to help pay for the costs of the war. In a time of emergency with the hurricane damage in New Orleans and across the South, we all came together and agreed to do this.

But this is done unilaterally, without the consent of both sides, in a time of national emergency, and it is a travesty, Mr. Speaker. It contains provisions that have nothing to do with our troops' survival and safety in the field. To burden our troops with pork, with tax increases, with special provisions that have nothing to do with the war, adds to, I think, the obvious misuse of the process, and I urge Members to vote against the pork and support our troops.

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Mr. Speaker, it is approximately 2:10 p.m. on the east coast, and in less than 24 hours, the Speaker of the House has announced that she is going to drop on this House floor a $250 billion spending bill for the United States war against terror.

It has always been the policy of this Nation that party labels end at the water's edge. Until today, it has always been the policy of this House that the Members of this House were given the privilege and opportunity of debating in committee and offering amendments.

On legislation as important as funding a war for the survival of the American people and a war against barbarians from the Dark Ages, this House of Representatives has been shut out. It's appalling, it's embarrassing, it's outrageous, it's unacceptable for the Speaker of the House and the chairman of the Appropriations Committee to be the only two people in this institution allowed to see the bill. No one has seen the bill.

All 300 million Americans have been shut out of this appropriations process to fund our soldiers. To ensure their protection and survival in the field, to ensure the survival of this Nation, this entire House of Representatives needs to be involved, and the country needs to know that this Speaker is running this House like the Supreme Soviets.

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Mr. Speaker, let's be clear. It is not we Members who are shut out, it is the constituents that we represent. On this Financial Services bill, those constituents that we represent have been shut out in committee and not offered an opportunity to offer an amendment.

On the Appropriations Committee, the war funding bill, life or death for our troops, the most important question facing our Nation, our survival as a Nation and the war on terror, the 19 million Americans that we represent on the Republican side have been shut out of the process and denied an opportunity to offer amendments in debate on the survival of the Nation in the war on terror, on life and death of our soldiers in the field.

I, for one, had an amendment to make the Iraqi Government pay more of their own share of this reconstruction and make sure that with oil at $120 a barrel, the Iraqi Government, sitting on the world's third-largest supply of oil, I have an amendment to require the Iraqi Government, that I was going to offer in committee, to make the Iraqi Government pay for the reconstruction of roads, utilities, schools, job training and economic development. Because we have a record debt and deficit in this country, that amendment is an important piece of the debate in the appropriations bill to pay for the war.

This is not just any bill that the American people have been shut out of the debate on. It is the bill paying for the lives and safety of our troops in the field.

I would, frankly, think that the Democrat leadership of this House would be embarrassed to deny the American people an opportunity to have their elected representatives participate in this debate. When we started this Congress, the Speaker promised the most ethical and open Congress in the history of the Nation. We don't see it in the process. Over and over again these bills come to the floor without an opportunity to debate them or offer amendments on the floor.

Don't forget, it is not just the Republicans that are shut out, Mr. Speaker, but the Democrat members of the Appropriations Committee have been shut out, just like the members of the Financial Services Committee have been shut out. The American people have been shut out of this process, and the Democrat leadership ought to be embarrassed for bringing a bill to fund the war without giving us all an opportunity.

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Mr. CULBERSON. Madam Speaker, this Sunday was the 265th birthday of Thomas Jefferson, one of our Nation's greatest Founding Fathers, and someone who we, I think, as a Nation do not pay enough attention to.

His birthday, unfortunately, went largely unnoticed. And I'm going to take this time on the floor today, Madam Speaker, to honor this great good man, recognize his genius and the application of his core principles as solutions to the core problems our Nation faces today, and in conclusion, to read his first Inaugural Address which was given in this Capitol on March 4, 1801 as a reminder of his genius and as a guideline to really lay out a path for the solutions that we really need as a Nation today.

Today, the House Guest Chaplain is Dr. Charles Simmons, Senior Pastor at Memorial Drive United Methodist Church in Houston. Below is Congressman Culberson's one minute speech honoring Dr. Simmons.

MR. CULBERSON: Madame Speaker,

I rise to honor Dr. Charles B. Simmons, our chaplain for the day, who joins us from my hometown of Houston, TX. I have known Reverend Simmons and his family for many years now and am thrilled he was able to lead the House in today’s opening prayer, a tradition that began at the urging of Benjamin Franklin in the infantile days of our nation.

Reverend Simmons is serving in his tenth year as senior minister of Memorial United Methodist Church, and is recognized nationally as a dynamic preacher, dedicated pastor and respected leader among Methodists.

Mr. CULBERSON. Mr. Speaker, there is no more noble endeavor that we can engage in than to cure human diseases. All of us in Congress I think have an obligation to be sure that we are, for example, doubling the investment we make in the National Institutes of Health, in the National Science Foundation, in the research work that they're doing to identify and cure human diseases at the earlier stages.

I represent the Texas Medical Center, and I'm proud to do so. Those institutions, the greatest in the world, the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center, Texas Children's Hospital, Baylor, University of Texas Health Science Center is doing research today, particularly on nano research, where we have the potential, within the next 10 to 15 years, of being able to identify in a child before she's born genetic predisposition to certain diseases, for example, like Lou Gehrig's disease, or diabetes, or cystic fibrosis. These genetically-based diseases can be identified before a child is born using nanotechnology, reinjecting, for example, nano sponges with a protein fix back into the mother's amniotic fluid. The child would then take up those nano sponges. And we can cure diseases in children before they are born.