Date: 1982-03-31
Speaker: JAMES K. COYNE (republican)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. some wise poltitican many. many centuries ago said. I am sure. that opportunity only knocks once. Of course. there are many frustrated Republican Members of Congress here today who spoke out earlier In the day in 1minute speeches saying that we have not had an opportunity even yet to really constructively begin to reduce the Federal budget. Fortunately. we have had at least one opportunity to try to reduce the budget of th6 committees of the Congress itself. and 2 weeks ago I am pleased that our body decided to take that. opportunity. to seize it. and do what we can to reduce spending In the Federal Government. at least when we have this onealbeit a smallopportunity to try to reduce spending. First. I would like to thank and commend the members of the House Administration Committee. both Democrats and Republican alike. for recognizing this opportunity when it was presented to them 2 weeks ago. They went back to their committee. and I must confess. did a job of reducing $700.000 out of these committee funding resolutions. I stand before the Members today to hope that opportunity can knock again and again and again over the next 12 months so that we can reduce Federal spending every ingle opportunity that we have. This body was elected a year and a half ago to do just that. to reduce Federal spending. and I am happy that we are showing in a small way that we can have the resolve. Of course. the freshmen Members of the Republican Party in Congress played an active role in seizing this opportunity. and I am proud of the effort we made to convince our colleagues and Members on both sides of the aisle of the importance of bringing fiscal responsibility to Congress. Many of us feel as I do. that it has been a long. long time since Congress has fPlt the need to reduce spending. Some of us feel it has been 30 or 40 years. and now we are beginning to learn to do something that many of us have not done in a generation. learning to use the word "less" rather than "more." My colleague from Texas. only a minute ago. criticized the freshmen for taking the opportunity in the 1minute speeches to call for some action in Congress. we are frustrated that Congress has not done anything yet. but we are not asking for more laws. as he alleged. We are asking for less laws. we ate asking. most of all. for one law. the budget law. to give us less spending in the Federal Government. We cannot deliver to the American people that which they are desiring. that which they are seeking. that which they are pleading fora balanced budget. lower taxes. lower Interest rates. unless we recognize our opportunity to cut spending every chance we have. My colleague. the respected chairman of the subcommittee. mentioned earlier in the day that we need this $40 million to run our committees because we have the responsibility of spending hundreds and hundreds of billions of dollars. and how can we do that well unless we spend millions of dollars running our committees? That is exactly the type of thinking that has gotten us in the mess we are in today. They declare that the only way we can solve our problems is to throw more money at them. That is not our charge. Our responsibility is to make the money we take from the American taxpayers work harder. make the people that work. work harder. and I am convinced that of the 1.700 men and women who work in the committees. on the staffs of the committees of Congress. we can get them to work harder. We can get them to do more for less. and we should take this opportunity to show that this is exactly what the American people want them to do. One of the most troubling things I have heard in the debate here this afternoon. though. was from my colleague. the chairman of the subcommittee. that he cannot guarantee that we will have no supplementals during the course of the year. I want to compliment him for not having any supplementals last year. I just hope and plead that he can reconsider and guarantee to us today that we will have no supplementals during this calendpr year. We have got to show the American working men and women that we are committed to tightening our belts. Does the gentleman realize. for exemple. that there are over a million union members in this country today. who have in the past 12 months provided concessions in their union contracts?