Madam Speaker, first, I would like to thank my friend, the distinguished chairwoman, Ms. Slaughter, for the time, and I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker, here we are 74 days…
Madam Speaker, first, I would like to thank my friend, the distinguished chairwoman, Ms. Slaughter, for the time, and I yield myself such time as I may consume.
Madam Speaker, here we are 74 days into the new fiscal year, and the new majority is requesting their third continuing resolution to fund the government because they failed to pass the necessary appropriations bills.
As of today, only one appropriations bill funding the Department of Defense has been signed into law. What is the status of the rest? Well, another one has made it to a conference committee, and the rest of the appropriations bills wait for the majority to decide what to do. They control both Houses of Congress, and yet they still have to decide what to do.
They had a chance to bring their record to two appropriations bills signed into law. But instead, the majority decided to play politics with a bill that had extraordinary bipartisan support, the Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act, because the majority thought they could use it as a campaign ploy.
The new majority promised that they would finish their appropriations work. About a year ago, my friend, the distinguished chairwoman, Ms. Slaughter, came to the floor and said things would be different under the leadership of the new majority. She said, and I quote, ``The House will no longer avoid asking tough questions or fail to live up to its most basic duties.''
Well, today we see that that has not been possible. Next week, the majority is expected to propose an omnibus appropriations bill for all the appropriations bills that haven't been finished. That bill will probably run into the thousands of pages and spend nearly half a trillion dollars. Members may not have enough time to read and digest that legislation before they are asked to vote on it. And unless the majority decides to move the omnibus appropriations bill through a conference committee, that bill will fall squarely within one of the loopholes to the majority's earmark rule, and the rules of the House then would not require any disclosure of earmarks that will be contained in that massive omnibus appropriations bill. The majority should not be asking Members to vote on a bill that may include numerous earmarks that no one is going to be able to vet and that most won't even be able to see.
Because of this loophole in the earmark rule, I, along with Mr. Dreier, Mr. Hastings and Mr. Sessions, sent a letter to the distinguished chairman of the Appropriations Committee, Mr. Obey, asking him to ``adhere not just to the letter of clause 9 of rule XXI, but to its spirit as well and provide the Rules Committee and the House with a list of earmarks contained in the omnibus appropriations bill prior to the consideration by the Rules Committee.''
I sincerely hope that Chairman Obey will comply with our request. If he does, that would, to an extent, provide Members with a bit of comfort when the bill comes to the floor.
Committee on Rules,
House of Representatives,
Washington, DC, December 6, 2007.
Hon. David R. Obey,
Chairman, Committee on Appropriations, Washington, DC.
Dear Chairman Obey: Today the Committee on Rules reported a
``martial law'' rule to provide for the same day
consideration of an omnibus appropriations vehicle. That
measure also includes a provision giving you the option of
inserting extraneous explanatory material in the
Congressional Record for appropriations measures for the
remainder of this session.
During the markup of that measure, we offered an amendment
to the rule to require that you provide the list of earmarks
required by clause 9 of rule XXI for the omnibus
appropriations measure. Unfortunately, that amendment to the
rule was rejected along partisan lines.
Mr. Chairman, we know that you have made an effort during
this Congress to provide transparency for earmarks contained
in bills coming through your committee. However, because the
omnibus appropriations bill will be considered as a Senate
amendment to a House bill, it falls squarely within one of
the loopholes of the earmark rule and the Rules of the House
will not require any disclosure of earmarks that will be
contained therein. As you were the presiding officer over the
motion to concur in the Senate amendment to H.R. 6, the
energy bill, you are well aware that no list of earmarks was
provided for that measure because it fell within the same
loophole.
We respectfully request that you adhere not just to the
letter of clause 9 of rule XXI, but to its spirit as well and
provide the Rules Committee and the House with a list of
earmarks contained in the omnibus appropriations bill prior
to consideration by the Rules Committee. That kind of
disclosure will be in the best interest of the House, its
Members, and the Nation.
We appreciate your willingness to consider our request.
Respectfully,
David Dreier,
Doc Hastings,
Lincoln Diaz-Balart,
Pete Sessions.
Madam Speaker, the new majority, again, has failed to live up to their promises to finish their work on time and many others, and the underlying third continuing resolution is just another example of their failure to lead.
I reserve the balance of my time.
Again, I thank my friend.
Madam Speaker, I will be asking for a ``no'' vote on the previous question so that we can amend this rule and move toward passing the conference report on the bipartisan Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act that I made reference to a few minutes ago. The House passed the veterans and military funding bill on June 15 of this year by a vote of 409-2. The Senate followed suit and named conferees on September 6 of this year.
Unfortunately, the majority leadership in the House has refused to move the Military Construction and Veterans Affairs Appropriations Act. They have even refused to name conferees. Instead, the majority plans to include the veterans funding in the massive omnibus appropriations legislation. But the status of the omnibus is still in doubt.
Negotiations apparently are ongoing, but we all know there is one bill that has extraordinarily wide bipartisan support and that the President will quickly sign it into law, the Veterans Affairs appropriations bill. We already know that we are going to be here next week. We should pass the Veterans Affairs appropriation bill and provide the veterans the funding they deserve.
I urge my colleagues to help move this important legislation and oppose the previous question. Our veterans deserve better than partisan gamesmanship holding back their funding.
Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to insert the text of the amendment and extraneous materials immediately prior to the vote on the previous question.
Madam Speaker, at this time, I yield back the balance of my time.
Madam Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
