Floor Statements

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this resolution today.

It is a sad honor to come to the House Floor today to speak about the lives of seven heroes who put a face and personality to the United States space program. And what a face it is--one of strength, optimism, discipline, adventure, humor, compassion--in other words, much of what we strive for as the best of the American Spirit.

These brave Americans gave their lives for the good of our Country and we will never be able to repay them or their families for the sacrifice they made. They were our brightest and best and their passion for advancing and improving our Nation has inspired us all.

Once again, we Americans find ourselves responding to national tragedy with a mixture of strong emotions. We feel great sadness as we mourn this loss of human life and noble endeavor. We know that no matter how great our own sadness might be, it cannot compare to the great weight of grief the astronauts' families and coworkers bear. Our hearts have broken as we have watched the spouses and children deal with their private grief in such a public way. In response, we simply hope that the families can sense the warm embrace of our thoughts and prayers.

But we also feel a great sense of admiration, respect and gratitude. How many of us have stood under a canopy of stars, looked to the heavens and wondered ``What is up there?'' We have admired our space explorers as heroes since before the first launch of the Mercury program. Perhaps some of us have

even dreamed of becoming a part of this intrepid cadre of astronauts. The Columbia crew belonged to that special family of explorers who dare to risk themselves in the name of exploration, discovery and knowledge which will benefit all of humankind. Over the past five days, as we have learned more about that crew of seven individuals, we also have learned about the heart and soul of the space program and also about ourselves.

Just as the planet Earth is home to a diverse people, the Columbia carried a crew of numerous nationalities and ethnicities. They learned, as we all must, that it is our diversity, our different skills and traits, which become our strength when focused towards a common goal.

When we humans find ourselves grappling with so many strong emotions, we turn to the Divine Comforter to help us cope and understand; that is precisely what our Country has done this week. Even these astronauts who traveled to the stars understood that they were not the master of those stars. The held a deep and abiding faith in the One who created all which they longed to explore. And now, we must content ourselves in believing that each of these brave men and women is home with that Creator, discovering still more wonders beyond our wildest dreams.

On behalf of the residents of the 17th Congressional District of Texas who I am privileged to represent in the House of Representatives, I extend both sympathy to the families who have lost so much and gratitude for their indomitable spirit. You will never be forgotten.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in opposition to the rules package before us today. While it contains several

items which I support, particularly the deeming resolution setting spending limits for the unfinished appropriation bills, the package contains two items which tilt the rules in favor of policies which will more easily send our Nation further into red ink. I would ask the majority to reconsider both of these proposals.

One of the reforms the majority made with great fanfare as part of the Contract with America in 1995 was repeal of the Gephardt rule, which would spin off separate legislation increasing the debt limit upon passage of the debt resolution without a separate vote or opportunity for debate on the amendments.

Now that our national debt is growing at a record pace under their policies, less than 6 months ago the administration asked us to increase the debt ceiling by $400 billion; Christmas Eve, the administration is asking us to increase the debt ceiling again to $6.4 trillion.

The majority now, under their rules package, has decided that greater openness and accountability regarding our national debt perhaps is not such a good thing after all. I ask Members to reconsider that. Just as credit card spending limits serve as tools to force families to examine their household budgets, the statutory debt limit reminds our Nation to more closely evaluate taxing and spending policies. Reviving the Gephardt rule will allow Members to avoid taking responsibility for paying the bills we incur by our votes.

Now, the implementation of dynamic scoring also should raise a red flag to those who call themselves conservative in this body. Under the logic of those advocating dynamic scoring, the tax cut we passed last year should have resulted in greater surpluses than was being projected last spring. We can disagree about the extent the tax cut contributed to the return of the deficit, but it is clear that it did not have a dynamic effect on producing higher surpluses and revenues.

The conservative approach, to me, is to be conservative in budget projections. If we err on the side of being conservative and cautious, Congress can easily deal with the problem of having more money than was projected. But when we err on the side of being too optimistic, we have a much greater challenge in dealing with fiscal problems such as those before us now.

We are paying the price today for ignoring the warnings of experts in the past. We should not ignore the warnings of those that say changing to dynamic scoring will contribute to further problems of the deficit and debt of this country.

Vote ``no'' on the rules changes; vote ``yes'' on cutting the interest taxes on the American people.