the Ramsar Convention has said it is a body of water of international significance.

I am very much in support of that.

I am against drilling off the mid-Atlantic, and I am going to do everything I can to prevent drilling off the mid-Atlantic.

I understand the legal, but it was my understanding that the President has ordered that there will be no new exploration sites until the review has been done as a result of this current spill.

A spill in lease sale site 220, if we had a spill there, is very likely it would affect the Maryland coastline.

I find it somewhat offensive to the Chesapeake Bay and the State I represent for us to be considered less worthy for protection than the West Coast of the United States or the north Atlantic.

When will that information be made available, do you know?

I can tell you the way that currents run off the mid-Atlantic, the way the wind blows, any oil spill will affect the Chesapeake Bay.

I quite frankly didn't understand this.

I fully understand that, but you have the responsibility to set into motion the type of changes that will correct this failed system.

I appreciate that statement, and I am going to come back to it in a moment. But you still haven't quite answered to me, and I am against drilling off the Pacific. And I am against the North Atlantic drilling.

I hope that you are reconsidering because I listen to you.

I don't want to get too personal on this, but what do you think about cutting the spending for the high-speed rail between Richmond and Washington?

If the gentleman will just yield on that, are you referring to the paragraph that says: ``Presidents Clinton and Bush pushed through a series of tax changes, credits, lower rates, higher exemptions that slashed income taxes for poor and…

I thank the gentleman for yielding. Maybe the public gets tired of this back and forth. But the gentleman talks in ways that indicate that all of a sudden, in 2009, January, when President Obama took office, somehow the world fell apart…

We've done some very substantive things, most of which your party has opposed. We passed last year the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act which you voted against and which your party voted, to a person, against. I don't know whether…

I am certainly hopeful that we will deal with the issue of spending levels by the time we bring appropriation bills to the floor. We are working on that. I will say to my friend who has just given us an exposition on his new program--and…

I thank the gentleman for yielding. On Tuesday, the House will meet at 12:30 p.m. for morning-hour debate and 2 p.m. for legislative business with votes postponed until 6:30 p.m. On Wednesday and Thursday, Mr. Speaker, the House will meet…