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All Postings for:August 2008


Charleston’s SPAWAR marks integration of 10,000th MRAP vehicle

Posted by: Henry E. Brown (August 28, 2008, 02:05 PM)

An important new piece of Lowcountry history was made earlier this month, as Space and Naval Warfare (SPAWAR) Systems Center (SSC) Charleston celebrated the integration of the 10,000th Mine Resistant Ambush Protected (MRAP) vehicle. MRAP vehicles, which are specially designed and manufactured to protect troops from IDEs and other treats they face in Iraq, are outfitted with a full complement of communications, computers, command and control, intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (C4ISR) equipment at SSC Charleston.

Four soldiers who have used MRAP vehicles in Iraq provided first-hand accounts of the vehicles capabilities and offered vivid testimony as to their life-saving role in support of their mission.

While MRAPs are built by many companies around the country, including in Charleston, all of them must come to SPAWAR for final integration to make them ready for the warfighter.  And getting them ready requires a full team effort with so many partners, especially Charleston’s 841st Transportation Battalion, Charleston Air Force Base 437th and 315th Airlift Wings, and many commands on¬ the Naval Weapons Station. 

I have been proud to support this effort in Congress, working with my colleagues to provide the funding needed to buy these vehicles and get them into the field protecting our troops as soon as possible.  However, if the hard working folks in Charleston hadn’t stepped up, they never would have gotten there. 

And they certainly did get there – going from inception to full rate production in little over a year.  The team generally integrates 5 MRAPs a day, but has completed as many as 69 in one day to make sure they are on the way to protect our troops.  Indeed, the Secretary of the Navy has compared the work done at SPAWAR to the work done at the Naval Shipyard more than 65 years ago when we fought a different enemy. 

Hats off to these hard working Lowcountry residents – your country owes you a debt of gratitude. 

Posted in Defense | View Full Posting

 


More on Friday's Floor Revolt & an Open Letter to Speaker Pelosi

Posted by: Brown Staff (August 04, 2008, 03:46 PM)

We have recieved many calls from folks across the 1st District responding to the efforts of Congressman Brown and the House Republicans this past Friday.  Here is some of what Congressman Brown had to say from the floor: http://brown.house.gov/apps/list/press/sc01_brown/080108energyrevolt.shtml.  Today, in addition to keeping up the revolt on the floor, House Republicans are circulating an open letter to Speaker Pelosi outlining efforts to demand a vote on increasing American energy production. The letter is pasted below:

AN OPEN LETTER TO SPEAKER PELOSI 
 
On Friday August 1, 2008, at 11:23 a.m., your Democrat majority in the House of Representatives adjourned the House for five full weeks.
 
House Republicans believe that Congress should not go on vacation until we take action to lower gas and energy prices for struggling American families.
 
For the last two months we and our House Republican colleagues have used every tool at our disposal to try and get you and your Democrat majority to vote on legislation to lower gas and energy prices by expanding environmentally sound domestic production of oil and natural gas, improving energy efficiency, and encouraging the development of alternative energy technologies.
 
Many of the proposals we have asked you and your Democrat majority to allow us to vote on are bipartisan proposals that we believe would enjoy the support of a majority of the Members of the Congress. Yet because you and your Democrat Leadership personally oppose these proposals, you are not allowing them to come up for a vote.  This past Sunday, you even told George Stephanopoulos that you will never allow this vote to occur (see transcript on the reverse).
 
In protest of you and your Democrat majority not allowing an up or down vote on producing more American energy, we and our House Republican colleagues were prepared to take to the floor on Friday, August 1, 2008, and speak to the nation. Rather than allowing that to happen you and your Democrat majority adjourned the House, turned off the television cameras, shut off the microphones and turned out the lights. Nearly 50 House Republicans remained on the floor of the House in defiance speaking to those citizens gathered in the galleries and to the media.
 
Today we have again returned to the Capitol to continue speaking to the thousands of Americans from all across our country who are visiting the Capitol. We would have preferred if instead we were joined by our colleagues to have a true debate on this issue that ended in an up or down vote. 
 
We think it is unconscionable that Congress has gone on vacation before we have addressed the high gas prices that are crippling our economy and hurting millions of families.  We are asking that you reconvene the House from your five-week vacation and schedule a vote on legislation to increase American energy production. Let us be clear, we are not asking for a guaranteed outcome, just the chance to vote.
 
Signed by: John Boehner, Republican Leader; Roy Blunt, Republican Whip; Adam Putnam, Republican Conference Chairman; Eric Cantor, Chief Deputy Whip; and Members of the House Republican Conference


STEPHANOPOULOS: … You've been getting a lot of heat on -- for not allowing a vote, a straight up-or-down vote on expanding drilling off the coasts of the United States. Why won't you permit a straight up- or-down vote?
 
PELOSI: … What these -- what our colleagues are talking about is something that won't have an effect for 10 years and it will be 2 cents at the time. If they want to present something as part of an energy package, we're talking about something. But to single shoot on something that won't work and mislead the American people as to thinking it's going to reduce the price at the pump, I'm just not going to be a party of it.
 
STEPHANOPOULOS: Except that it's not just Republicans calling for this. Members of your own caucus say we must have a vote. Congressman Jason Altmire, let me show our viewers right now, is saying there's going to be a vote. Here he says exactly, there's going to be a vote. September 30th will not come and go without a vote on opening the outer continental shelf. The message has been delivered. The issue can't be ignored any longer. He says he speaks for a lot of Democrats. He's talked to the leadership, and a vote must happen.
 
PELOSI: Well, maybe it will, as it's part of a larger energy package.

Instead we're saying, free the oil. Use it, don't lose it. There's 68 million acres in lower 48 and 10 or 20 million more acres in Alaska, where they're permitted, where they could drill anytime. This is a diversionary tactic from a failed energy policy.
 
STEPHANOPOULOS: But if you feel you have the better arguments, why not give a straight up-or-down vote for drilling?
 
PELOSI: Because the misrepresentation has been made that this is going to reduce the price at the pump. This is, again, a decoy, it's not a solution.
 
STEPHANOPOULOS: Well, if you're right, why not let it be debated out and have the vote?
 
PELOSI: We have a debate every single day on this subject. What you saw in the Congress this week was the war dance of the hand maidens of the oil companies. That's what you saw on the Republican side of the aisle.
 
Democrats and Republicans are not right down party lines on this issue. There are regional concerns, as well as some people concerned about what this means back home for them.
 
But we have a planet to save. We have an economy to grow. And we can do that if we keep our balance in all of this and not just say but for drilling in unprotected and these protected areas offshore, we would have lower gas prices. …
 
STEPHANOPOULOS: But why not allow votes on all that? When you came in as speaker, you promised in your commitment book, A New Direction for America, let me show our viewers, you said that bills should generally come to the floor under a procedure that allows open, full, fair debate, consisting of a full amendment process that grants the minority the right to offer its alternatives.
 
If they want to offer a drilling proposal, why can't they have a vote?
 
PELOSI: They'll have to use their imagination as to how they can get a vote, and they may get a vote. But I have tried, you know, we have serious policy issues in our country. The president of the United States has presented this but for this, our economy would be booming. But for this, gas would be cheaper at the pump.
 
It's simply not true. And even the president himself in his statement yesterday and before then has said there is no quick fix for this by drilling.

 
STEPHANOPOULOS: So you will not permit a vote. You may get beat, but you're not going to permit a vote on your own?
 
PELOSI: Well, again, we take this one step at a time. But why we're spending all this time on a parliamentary tactic when nothing less is at stake than the planet, the air we breathe, our children breathe? We have...

Posted in Energy | View Full Posting

 


Republican Leader Boehner: "We witnessed the power of American democracy in action."

Posted by: Brown Staff (August 01, 2008, 05:36 PM)

Below is a great release from Republican Leader John Boehner:

Boehner: House Republicans and the American People Stood Side by Side to Make History Together


Washington, Aug 1 - House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) issued the following statement on today’s historic revolt on the House floor by Republicans against Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) decision to leave town without a House vote on legislation to increase American-made energy and lower gas prices:

“The historic event that unfolded today on the floor of the People’s House was about more than gas prices.  We witnessed the power of American democracy in action.  Dozens of House Republicans joined hundreds of American citizens on the House floor to protest Speaker Pelosi’s decision to send Congress home for the rest of the summer without voting for more American-made energy and lower gas prices.

“Today, House Republicans and the American people stood side by side to make history together.  We sent a powerful message to Speaker Pelosi, Senators Reid and Obama, and other top Democrats that we will not rest until they allow a vote for more American energy and lower gas prices.  And we sent a powerful message that the passion to make our voices heard will never be extinguished by the heavy-handed actions of the out-of-touch Democratic Majority.  House Republicans and the American people showed today that we will stand united together on the most important issue facing our nation – and we will fight boldly until Congress finally heeds our will.”
 
NOTE:  Members participating in the spontaneous uprising included Reps. Brian Bilbray, Gus Bilirakis, Rob Bishop, Roy Blunt, John Boehner, John Boozman, Kevin Brady, Paul Broun, Henry Brown, Michael Burgess, John Campbell, Eric Cantor, Shelly Moore Capito, John Carter, Tom Cole, Mike Conaway, John Culberson, Charlie Dent, Mary Fallin, Jeff Fortenberry, Virginia Foxx, Louie Gohmert, Wally Herger, Pete Hoekstra, Duncan Hunter, Steve King, Dan Lungren, Don Manzullo, Kevin McCarthy, Thaddeus McCotter, Devin Nunes, Mike Pence, Chip Pickering, Todd Platts, Ted Poe, Jon Porter, Tom Price, Adam Putnam, Bill Sali, John Shadegg, John Shimkus, Adrian Smith, Mike Turner, Tim Walberg, Greg Walden, and Lynn Westmoreland.

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Posted in Energy | View Full Posting

 


In Case You Missed It: Congress is gone, but Republicans won't leave

Posted by: Brown Staff (August 01, 2008, 04:54 PM)

“The microphones were off, the House had stopped TV feeds to C-Span and the lights dimmed after the pre-noon vote to adjourn for the August recess. That didn't deter Republicans, who one after another rose to demand that Congress stay in session until it does something about high gas prices.”

Associated Press
By JIM ABRAMS
1 hour ago

WASHINGTON — The last House vote before a vacation usually sparks a stampede toward the doors and waiting planes. Not so Friday, when Republicans occupied the House floor for a rare, and at times bizarre, protest against Democratic energy policies.

The microphones were off, the House had stopped TV feeds to C-Span and the lights dimmed after the pre-noon vote to adjourn for the August recess. That didn't deter Republicans, who one after another rose to demand that Congress stay in session until it does something about high gas prices.

Unlike a normal session where the rules of decorum are strictly enforced, GOP lawmakers and their aides who filled the chamber clapped, chanted, gave standing ovations and booed the Democrats.

"Madame Speaker, where art thou?" shouted out Rep. Ted Poe, R-Texas, in a glancing rhetorical shot at House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. "Where oh where has Congress gone?"

It was a rare treat for tourists. Republicans invited many, in their shorts and sandals, into the chamber, usually strictly off-limits, to better hear the revivalist-like speeches.

Rep. Mike Pence, R-Ind., one of the organizers of the protest, said up to 40 of his fellow Republicans were prepared to keep the talk-in going. "I am prepared to stay here as long as we can," he said.

Republicans are angry that Democrats blocked them from a vote on allowing more off-shore oil drilling and increasing domestic oil supplies.

Democrats have faulted Republicans for obstructing their efforts to stop market speculation, press oil companies to develop the leases they have and force the president to release oil from the strategic petroleum reserve. The result is that Congress is leaving town without a comprehensive energy bill.

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NOTE. Access this article online by clicking here.

Posted in Energy | View Full Posting

 


UPDATED: Congressman Brown and other House Republicans Revolt on Floor after House Democrats Skip Town without Vote to Lower Energy Prices

Posted by: Brown Staff (August 01, 2008, 03:33 PM)

UPDATE [4:38pm]...Congressman Brown spoke to the assembled tourists, House staffers, and reporters that were sitting in the seats that are generally taken by Members of Congress when the House is in official session.  We should have his prepared statement posted soon.  Republican Member after Republican Member is speaking about the need for action on energy prices.  Republican Leadership also sent a letter to the Speaker asking that the House be called back into session to deal with our nation's energy crisis.

Congressman Brown and other House Republicans are staying on the House floor talking about the need to hold a vote on real solutions to high energy prices.  Unfortunately, the cameras, lights, and microphones are turned off, but you can read more about it here:

The Politico: No Light, No Problem for the House GOP

House Majority Leader Bohener: House GOP Floor Revolt Continues After Dems Skip Town Without Vote to Lower Gas Prices

Washington Post: "We are speaking without microphones - as though it were 1908 - acoustics of House chamber are good and gallery and you can hear us" - Congressman John Culberson

More on this as things develop...

Posted in Energy | View Full Posting