Tom Cole

I would love to have the opportunity on another occasion to talk to you and address this and find out ways we could work together.

We need to look toward some way to get at least some mandatory funding.

You are spot on in terms of the need and the importance of forward funding those programs to protect them, just like we do the veterans program.

Madam Chair, you are the chair of this subcommittee and the full committee. I don't think you have to apologize to anybody when you take some time.

Well, thank you very much, Madam Chair. And before I begin my scripted remarks, I want to welcome our friend and our former colleague to this position.

Rep. Tom Cole and Rep. Betty McCollum championed an amendment in the Rules Committee to strike Section 3003 from the NDAA.

Ensuring that the American people have a say in the ways in which our Nation goes into war and exits one, to reestablish communication and consultation between the Congress and the President on issues of life and death is certainly worth…

I would rather act and not get it quite right than do nothing at all and miss this really unique opportunity to reassert congressional authority.

Shame on us if we miss the opportunity to actually reclaim our authority when we actually have an administration that wants to help us.

I don't think Congress can claw back all the power that has been ceded to Presidents over the last 30 or 40 years.

It is very difficult when it is a President of your own party

The mere fact that it was an after-the-fact consultation with Congress... just was not a very compelling argument

Going to war in 2003, decision actually made in October of 2002, was pretty popular. It wasn't very popular by 2005 and 2006.

If Congress actually engages in war powers and AUMF reform that this hearing is addressing today, I think the executive branch will no longer have that crutch

I think forcing Congress to put its fingerprints on these kind of decisions is really something that we need to do.

I first want to thank Chairman McGovern for arranging today's hearing. Though the chairman and I disagree on a number of things, defending the constitutional authority entrusted to Congress is not one of them.

Frankly, there is no topic more important or serious than Congress' authority to declare when, where, and how our Nation chooses to go to war.

I urge a ``no'' vote on the previous question. Mr. Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Oklahoma (Mrs. Bice), my good friend, for further explanation of the amendment.

My friend and I disagree on the two pieces of legislation today, but we absolutely agree that the Committee on Rules' meeting was not fun. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Georgia (Mrs. Greene), my friend.

I urge a ``no'' vote on the previous question, and I reserve the balance of my time. Mr. McGOVERN. Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, I respond by saying to the gentleman: We have been waiting. We have…

Just for informational purposes. There is no way my friend from Massachusetts could have known this, but last night the Republican members were formally named to the Ethics Committee. We expect them to be approved today so the committee…

We have better alternatives, and I urge that we empower the Committee on House Administration to look at that. Mr. Speaker, I urge the rejection of the rule.

Whenever the gentleman is prepared to close, we will close. We were hopeful that one of our speakers would arrive, but they are having a difficult time getting here. Mr. McGOVERN. We have exhausted all of our speakers.

I continue to reserve the balance of my time. Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, I yield 1 minute to the gentlewoman from Florida (Ms. Castor).

I urge a ``no'' vote on the previous question. Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. Rodney Davis), who is the ranking Republican member on the House Administration Committee, for a further explanation of this…