Even the Department of Energy says that expanded export of LNG will benefit the United States economy. In 2010, the oil and natural gas industry added $476 billion to our economy. To top it off, the oil and natural gas industry employs 9.2 million people in America. We are missing out on this opportunity by not exporting LNG. We’ve ignored this opportunity far too long. Let’s stop relying on Middle Eastern nations and use more natural gas and export it as LNG.

And that’s just the way it is.

Some of the workers were killed; some were able to escape; some were taken hostage. One of the hostages killed in this attack was a member of my congressional district, Victor Lovelady.

Victor was a native of southeast Texas. He was originally from Nederland, Texas, a town of primarily hardworking, blue collar folks centered around the energy industry. Victor had recently moved to Atascocita, Texas, his home not far from where I live. He was 57 years of age.

When he died, he was on a contract assignment for ENGlobal, an energy company in Algeria. According to his family, Victor waited to take that contract until his children had finished school so he could attend their sporting events. This was not surprising for someone who was described as a “dedicated family man and a fantastic coworker.” Although it was hard to be so far away from his family, Victor was excited to take the contract assignment so he could ensure a secure future for his family. That’s just the kind of father and husband he was.

The deal for this contract was 28 days on, 28 days off, and he was just 10 days in with only 18 days left to go. He was scheduled to come home to Texas the day after his daughter’s birthday. His life was stolen by those who seek to destroy Americans, the radicals who inflict terror on all who believe in freedom.

Victor is survived by a loving family, including his wife, Maureen; daughter, Erin; and their son, Grant. Over the holidays, the close Lovelady family expressed concern for the safety of Victor, but he reassured them saying, “It’s so safe. We have protection.” It’s hard for people to understand such unspeakable evil.

I spoke with Victor’s brother, Mike, throughout the crisis and as did Congressman Randy Weber. Yesterday, after we heard the terrible news, Mike told me:

I can associate with my brother getting in a car wreck or having cancer. But terrorism and Nederland, Texas, don’t go together.

He was described as “a great family man and a fantastic coworker” and “a leader who mentored countless individuals during his tenure.” He was also known for his spontaneous wit. Victor moved from Nederland, Texas, to Atascocita to be closer to work, but he went back and forth so that his children could finish school there.

Victor was killed not just because of what he did; he was killed because of who he was. He was killed because he was an American. A radical Islamic al Qaeda group by the name of the Signatories in Blood claimed responsibility for this terrorist attack, those who seek to destroy us and kill indiscriminately.

They hate us for who we are and what we stand for. Diplomacy is not in their vocabulary.

Two other Americans were also killed in this attack. Their names were Gordon Lee Rowan of Sumpter, Oregon, and Frederick Buttaccio of Katy, Texas.

The Algerian military retook the compound after 3 days, and they found that 34 other hostages had been killed, as well as dozens of terrorists.

Our thoughts, prayers, and concerns are with the Lovelady, Rowan, and Buttaccio families today.

Secretary Panetta said that America must respond to these murders. That is correct. We should go after these killers who have malice and evil in their hearts, that kill Americans because they are Americans. That would be justice, and justice is what we do in this country.

And that’s just the way it is.

But most citizens don’t have government guards protecting them 24/7. Many people feel defenseless. Some people of this Chamber expect protection for themselves while advocating more restrictions on guns for the people of America–hypocrisy at its highest. In fact, one of the proposals for more gun laws mirrors the stringent D.C. gun laws. If the D.C. gun laws worked, D.C. would not be such a violent city. If D.C. gun laws worked, why do we have so many armed guards at the Capitol?

The elites forget it’s the shooter, not the gun. They want more government power and control while taking away liberty from the rest of us. They want to punish the guns, not the people who commit crimes with guns. They want to keep their special government protection while redlining the Second Amendment for the people. They say, protection for me but not for thee.

And that’s just the way it is.

Lavinia is not alone. There are 400,000 untested rape kits with DNA evidence in the United States. That’s why I have introduced, along with Congresswoman Maloney of New York, the SAFER Act. And we can pass it today by unanimous consent. This is a bipartisan piece of legislation. New Yorker, Texan, Democrat, and Republicans, speaking different languages, it doesn’t get much more bipartisan than that. This act would allow funds to be used to test untested sexual assault kits for DNA evidence so justice can be done for victims.

And that’s just the way it is.

Congress is addicted to spending money. Maybe Congress should join Spending Anonymous. Here is the 12-step plan:

One, Congress should admit it’s addicted to spending someone else’s money!

Two, make a list of the wasteful spending;

Three, pass a yearly budget and a constitutional balanced budget amendment;

Four, stop giving money to countries that hate us;

Five, have the resolve not to spend money we don’t have;

Six, don’t contribute to the addiction by taking more money away from Americans;

Seven, don’t borrow any more money from China;

Eight, don’t make excuses for our addiction;

Nine, don’t blame others for the addiction;

Ten, run Congress like most people run their family budgets;

Eleven, remember, we are to do the will of the people;

Twelve, have a support group and meet regularly to confess our addiction.

Congress should join Spending Anonymous.

And that’s just the way it is.

The United States is one again meddling in the internal affairs of a sovereign nation. This is the arrogance of power. In the meantime, Prime Minister Netanyahu of Israel is going ahead with the house project without the United States building permit. And good for him. And that’s just the way it is

When he came home to America, he suffered from PTSD, as many of our warriors do. He spent time in a recovery facility in California to cope with the mental wounds of war.

Then, in August, Jon decided to get some R&R. He wanted to go to Costa Rica with a fellow marine, Ian McDonough, and they wanted to go on a surfing trip. According to McDonough, surfing gave Jon peace of mind and really helped with his therapy.

So the two packed up their car with their surfboards and began their journey from Florida to Costa Rica. Their trip took them through Texas to the border, Brownsville, Texas. There they crossed the international border into Matamoros, Mexico, and that is as far as they got.

On the trip, Jon carried with him a 100-year-old antique gun, a family heirloom that belonged to his grandfather. When they arrived at the U.S. Customs and Border Protection in Texas, Jon did what he was supposed to do; he filled out all the necessary paperwork. He talked to U.S. Customs and verified with them that the rifle did not violate any Mexican law.

The two allegedly handed the Mexican officials the paperwork regarding the rifle. But instead of continuing on their way to Costa Rica to go surfing, Hammar was immediately detained, and dragged away to a notorious prison in Matamoros where they house narcoterrorists.

Now, here’s a photograph of our marine when he served America. This is a photograph of him recently taken in the Matamoros prison. As you notice, he is in solitary confinement, and similar to the old days, chained to his bed where he cannot go anywhere. This is all because of the misunderstanding and a mix-up about what the law is and what should have happened to him at the border.

So he’s being held as a criminal because the size of the barrel on that rifle was, apparently, too long – even though U.S> Customs told Hammar he was not violating any American or Mexican law in having the rifle. Hammar had no criminal intent when he took that old rifle into Mexico.

Jon Hammar should not have to spend another holiday away from his family – holidays he spent when he served as a marine – and certainly he shouldn’t spend a holiday away from his family in a Mexican jail where he is illegally being detained. Obviously, there appears to be a misunderstanding between U.S. and Mexican officials, with Hammar literally caught in the middle of this. So Mexican President Enrique Nieto should intervene and have Hammar released. It is in the power of the Mexican President to solve this international incident and do so in a diplomatic way. So I ask that he do so and release Hammar by Christmas.

This marine and veteran has spent his life defending freedom, defending American, taking care of America. It’s time that America take care of him by asking for and expecting his release from this Mexican prison where he ought not to be. And that’s just the way it is.

Here are photos of 23 of the 26 victims that were murdered that day. We should know their photographs. We should know their names. They were: Chase Kowalski, 7 years of age; James Mattioli, 6; Jack Pinto, 6; Caroline Previdi, 6; Avielle Richman, 6; Benjamin Wheeler, 6 years of age; Allison Wyatt, age 6; Catherine Hubbard, 6 years of age; Daniel Barden, 7 years old; Grace McDonnell, 7; Emilie Parker, 6 years of age; Jesse Lewis, age 6; Ana Marquez-Greene, 6; Noah Pozner, 6; Jessica Rekos, 6; Josephine Gray, age 7; Madeleine Hsu, age 6; Charlotte Bacon, age 6; Olivia Engel, age 6; Dylan Hockley, age 6. Those were the children.

Here are the names of the teachers: Dawn Lafferty Hochsprung, age 47; Victoria Soto, age 27; Anne Marie Murphy, age 52; Lauren Rousseau, 30; Mary Sherlach, 56; Rachel D’Avino, age 29.
These were real people. Real victims, real children, and real teachers of Newtown, Connecticut.

The people of Connecticut have started burying these victims of this assault on America. And all Americans can relate to some extent to this crime that has occurred at this elementary school.
I have four kids and 10 grandkids. Three of my daughters are teachers by profession. My wife is a first grade elementary schoolteacher. No parent ever wants to bury their child. We just don’t want to do that. We never want our children to die in their youth, like these children did.

So, we mourn with the families of Connecticut. We must honor the victims in our prayers and in our words and ask the good Lord to bless them, their families, the people of Connecticut, and, yes, our country as well. And that’s just the way it is

Her attacker was sent to prison in Exas, supposedly never to be heard of again. Or so she thought. Four years later, Wu was sitting alone in her apartment when guess who shows up – the person who assaulted her to begin with – busting through her door. HE reportedly said in a taunting voice, “I bet you didn’t expect to see me here.”

Wu called the police, and Chen quickly fled the scene, but 2 weeks later, he returned to finish what he began 4 years ago. Chen beat Ms. Wu to death with a hammer, stabbed her with a knife, leaving her to do die in her pool of blood.

Ms. Wu’s death did not have to occur. This crime could have actually been prevented. Chen should not have been back on the streets after serving time in prison, but he was, and here’s why.

After he had served his initial sentence for assaulting Ms. Wu, he was ordered legally deported back where he came from, back to China. But his home country our good old buddies the Chinese, refused to take him back. They didn’t want him. And so they stalled and stalled and stalled, and over those 3 years of Chinese stalling and giving him the runaround, Chen was eventually freed – free to kill, and kill he did.

This tragedy is not an isolated phenomenon. Unfortunately, other Americans have died as a result of this gaping hole in the immigration system. It’s no secret that everybody believes our immigration system is broken. Fixing it down the road will be complex and complicated. But there are some things that we can do about immigration right now to fix specific problems, and here’s one.

Currently, thousands of criminal aliens are in our country, just like Chen, who have committed a crime and gone to prison. Our immigration system worked to order them deported, but their country won’t take them back. They refuse to do so. So those countries stall and delay and eventually never take back their outlaws. So by law, after the person serves the time in our prisons, we can’t keep them indefinitely waiting on their country to take them back, and so they are eventually released. These countries know that, and that’s why they stall.

Many of those criminals now are running around on American streets looking for more crime and up to more malicious mischief.

The blood of American victims is not only on the hands of the felons who commit these crimes from foreign countries, but they’re also the fault of those countries that refuse to take back these criminal citizens.
You know, the blood of Ms. Wu is on the hands of Chinese citizen Huang Chen, but it’s also on the hands of the Chinese bureaucrats that would not take Chen back. Oh, they may wear white gloves because they weren’t the direct killer of Ms. Wu, but their delay allowed for that crime to be committed. And below those white gloves are the blood of this citizen who was killed in this country.

And it’s not just China committing these acts of not taking back lawfully deported individuals; there are numerous countries. Vietnam, Jamaica, Pakistan, and Cuba are just a few.

So what should we do? Well, there’s already a law to require that there be some sanctions against these countries that refuse to take back their lawfully deported aliens, but the State Department doesn’t enforce the law. The State Department says, well, we want to work diplomatically to get these people sent back. We don’t want to require any sanctions. And so they talk and they talk and they talk. Meanwhile, more crimes are being committed by these people who are released, who should have been sent home, while the State Department continues to talk. Like my grandfather used to say: When all is said and done, more is said than done.

We need to get these people out of our country who have been lawfully deported. These countries need to take them back, or there ought to be a consequence.

I’ve introduced legislation that removes the uncertainty and the weak knees of bureaucrats and requires the State Department to follow through with visa sanctions against the countries that won’t take back their lawfully deported criminals. I repeat, those visa sanctions should be primarily against, first, diplomats from these countries when they don’t take back these individuals.

It’s time to play a little bit of diplomatic hard ball with these nations. After all, Americans are dying because these criminals are illegally on the streets and our Nation does not insist on them being taken back.

It’s time to make these crooks and misfits the problem of their home country, rather than continue to remain our problem. Otherwise, more Americans are going to die. It’s time to play a little hard ball with these countries. And that’s just the way it is.

This plan won’t work to solve our economic woes. The problem is the government just spends too much. Where’s the plan to cut spending? There isn’t one. We got here by spending too much, not taxing too little. After all, “the last thing you do in a recession is raise taxes”–quoting the President. And that’s just the way it is.