Providing for Consideration of H.R. 4837

PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 4837, -- (House of Representatives - July 21, 2004)

MILITARY CONSTRUCTION APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2005

Mrs. MYRICK. Mr. Speaker, by direction of the Committee on Rules, I call up House Resolution 732 and ask for its immediate consideration.

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Mr. McGOVERN. Mr. Speaker, there is absolutely no way I can support this rule.

Last night, the Republican leadership of this House once again turned its back on military families trying to find a decent place to live. On bill after bill after bill, this Republican majority has chosen to waive all points of order, but on this bill, the Speaker and the majority leader refused to protect the Military Housing Privatization Initiative provision in the Military Construction bill from a point of order, despite the support of the President of the United States and the chairman of the Committee on Armed Services.

The leadership's decision dooms the important military housing provision, and it is wrong; and it is wrong particularly in a time of war.

The housing initiative is a public-private partnership that allows developers and property managers to build or renovate homes for use by military personnel. It is extremely successful. In fact, it has already provided decent housing to more than 60,000 military families, exceeding all expectations. If adequately funded, this initiative will enable the military to eliminate nearly all inadequate units within the U.S. by 2008.

Unfortunately, the law establishing the initiative limits total Federal spending on this program.

This limit will be reached by this November, effectively sounding the death knell for the expectations of 50,000 military families at 27 military bases in 22 States who are desperately waiting for these homes over the next 2 years.

Now, faced with this housing catastrophe, the gentleman from Michigan (Chairman Knollenberg) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards), with the bipartisan support of their committee, increased the MHPI cap by $500 million, the amount needed this year to continue upgrading and building military housing under this program.

Mr. Speaker, it is the practice of the Republican leadership in the Committee on Rules to allow points of order to be raised if the chairman of the authorizing committee objects to the inclusion of any provision legislating on an appropriations bill. The chairman of the Committee on Rules consistently explains this whenever Democrats on the Committee on Rules ask why a rule does not protect a certain provision. Yet in this case, the chairman of the Committee on Armed Services, the authorizing committee, supports raising the MHPI cap in this bill.

Not only that, the President of the United States supports the raising of the cap in this bill; but the Republican leadership, despite all their rhetoric about supporting our troops, has once again turned their backs on our troops and their families.

Mr. Speaker, this is one of those defining moments. If Members of this House want to support our troops and their families, then they will reject this rule. If Members of this House want their actions to match their rhetoric, then they will reject this rule. Each year I have watched the gentleman from Michigan (Chairman Knollenberg) and the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Edwards) do their best for our military personnel and their families with one of the most inadequate allocations in the budget. This year they tackled the difficult challenge of providing decent housing for our military families around the country. They did the right thing in this bill and in return only ask for protection for this important provision, and what they got from the Republican leadership was a slap in the face.

I urge my colleagues to defeat the previous question, support our troops, and support the families of our troops.