Date: 2010-06-09
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Madam Speaker. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Madam Speaker. I rise in opposition to H. Res. 1178. directing the Clerk of the House of Representatives to ensure that cost estimates prepared by the Congressional Budget Office are available to the public. Shouldnt we be spending our time perhaps having the Budget Committee meet and giving us a budget this year? I mean. the distinguished chairman of the Budget Committee. Mr. SPRATT. whom I hold in tremendous regard. said a number of years ago when the Republicans were in charge. If you cant set a budget. you cant govern. So instead of us giving meat. were giving what? I dont know what you would call this? Its not even broth. While I approve of measures that will help the American people know where their money is being spent. that really is the definition of a budget: a budget is the blueprint. In the mid1970s. we passed the Budget and Impoundment Act for the purpose. purportedly. of making sure that Congress was required to come up with a blueprint that would guide it. Now. its supposed to be a concurrent resolution. meaning that both Houses pass it. It doesnt go to the President for a signature. so its an internal document to this institution. that is. the Congress of the United States. And its purpose is to set out markers that will establish the guidelines for spending for the year. Thats one of the reasons we have a Rules Committee that would be required to give a waiver on a budget if an appropriations bill came here in violation of the budget. Well. were not going to have that this year because were not going to have a budget. Maybe what were going to do is were going to deem things. Remember that from the health care bill: were going to deem it passed. And when the American people heard about that. they said. well. you cant do that. And finally the majority fell off on that one. But I suppose thats what were going to do when we bring appropriation bills to the floor. Theyre going to be deemed to meet the budget that doesnt exist. So instead of us giving us meat like that. were going to bring up this bill. What does it do? What does it do? It requires the Clerk of the House to have on her Web site a link to the CBO analysis. Well. that would be important if they werent available already. but theyre available both through Thomas.gov and the CBO Web site. So I thought maybe its because the Clerk has some responsibility over the Congressional Budget Office. but thats not the case. If you look at all of the obligations that the Clerk of the House has. they have absolutely nothing to do with the Congressional Budget Office. So what are we doing here? Were bringing a bill to the floor which pretends. it seems to me. to do something about the budget. and its nothing more than a distraction. The fact of the matter is we do not have a budget this year. we will not have a budget this year. The majority has said they dont want to bring a budget forward. Now. certain news reports have suggested the reason why we will not have a budget is that it will be too embarrassing for us to bring a budget to the floor. particularly before an election. Now. I dont know whether thats true or not. but that has been cited in the public press. Weve been hearing a lot lately from our friends on the other side about the importance of disclosure. Section 301 of their highly touted DISCLOSE Act requires reporting organizations to post a link from their home page to the page where its financial disclosure information is available. yet in this bill there is no requirement for a CBO link for the Houses home page or for the Members home page or from the committees home page or for Members who voted for the spending that will impact the budget. but just from the Clerks. I really dont understand what this is really going to do. It is telling. while the majority attempts to pass measures like this. were doing nothing to actually take less of the hardearned tax dollars of the American people. I was home for the last 10 days in my district. or at least preceding yesterday. and I didnt hear a single person beg me to put a link on the Clerks Web site for this information. They demanded that we do something about the budget. And when I told them at home were doing nothing about the budget because the majority has decided were not even going to bring a budget upthis will be the first time since we passed that law in the seventies that the House has not passed a budget. Now I hear them say. When the Republicans were in charge we didnt have a budget. That is true. Sometimes the Senate and the House werent able to reconcile it. but we always passed a budget document from the House of Representatives. So we will be making history this year: no budget for the American people. But they can get on a link and they can go to CBO and they can find out what it costs for a particular bill. but they cant tell whether its in the budget or not because we dont have a budget. We dont even have to have budget waivers this year from the Rules Committee because theres nothing to waive. Where are the points of order against excessive spending? Thats what this House is built on. rules that are supposed to protect the taxpayer. We now are exempting ourselves from our own rules. When I go home. people say. Why doesnt Congress work under the same rules that the rest of the world works under? And I have to agree with them. Now. when I go back to my district and I talk to folks. they talk about the budget for their household. I met with a number of small business people. all the way from a small community in my district called Copperopolis. which celebrated its 150th anniversary. to Folsom. where we celebrated the 150th reenactment of the Pony Expressactually. they may have the Pony Express there. they also have Intel theredown to Citrus Heights in my district. talking to people all the time. and they kept saying. Why are you taxing so much? Why are you spending so much? Why are you busting the budget? Why are you putting all of this heavy debt burden on our kids? And I said. Those are the same questions Im asking. When I go back. Ill ask them again. So Im asking right here. Why are we doing it? And instead of us getting serious. were going to have this: give you a link to the Clerks office so that somehow you can find the estimate thats already available on two other Web sites. Now. what are we doing? Have we run out of post offices to name? We have rid the world of the scourge of unnamed post offices in this Congress. and now maybe were going to start going link by link by link by link. Ive been in this Congress for a number of years. I didnt realize it took us to pass a resolution to allow the Clerk to do this. Maybe thats something we have to do from now on. Madam Speaker. instead of wasting the time of this House. maybe we should actually lower the cost estimates produced by the CBO. That would be a good thing. well actually take an effort to try and lower them. But the first way you do that is adopt a budget where you debate it and we come to the floor and we say this is what we can afford and this is what we cant afford. Were not even doing that. It would be irresponsible for any family in my district to not have a budget. It would be irresponsible for any business in my district to not have a budget. It would be irresponsible for any local government in my district to not have a budget. yet we dont have a budget. So instead of dealing with that. we are here dealing with this bill. I dont question the gentlemans sincerity in offering this bill. I dont suggest he doesnt want more transparency. But. frankly. transparency over a system that doesnt have the essential foundation of a budget is really a wisp in the wind. Madam Speaker. I reluctantly oppose this. I reserve the balance of my time.