Date: 2010-05-12
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Madam Speaker. I would like to thank my friend. the gentleman from Colorado . for the time. I yield myself such time as I may consume. In order for the United States to compete in todays global marketplace and to spur longterm growth. we must invest in basic science research and development. In 2005. the National Academy of Sciences. the National Academy of Engineering. and the Institute of Medicine. collectively known as the National Academies. published the report "Rising Above the Gathering Storm." The report concluded that the United States faces a serious challenge with regard to our future competitiveness and standard of living. That report led to the bipartisan enactment of the America COMPETES Act of 2007. which implemented the reports recommendations. Today we are set to consider H.R. 5116. the America COMPETES Reauthorization Act of 2010. The bill reauthorizes the America COMPETES Act for 5 years. increases authorization spending levels to $86 billion. and creates new programs. I understand and I support the underlying principles of the America COMPETES Act. prioritizing and strengthening investments in basic research and development and STEM: science. technology. engineering. and mathematics education. But we need to have an economic strategy that encourages companies. businesses in the United States. to compete. to grow. and to hire new workers. a strategy that includes the streamlining of burdensome regulations. a strategy that reduces taxation. that brings our Federal spending under control. and controls the spiraling national debt. So. Madam Speaker. as much as I would prefer to support the underlying legislation. I believe that at this time of severe budgetary constraints. the underlying legislation includes excessive spending levels. The bill has an overall authorization of nearly $86 billion. which represents approximately $20 billion in new funding above the fiscal base of this year. That is a significant increase when were facing record budget deficits. And that is after the socalled stimulus bill injected 6 billion additional dollars into the agencies funded by this bill. The current national debt projections and the majoritys insatiable appetite for spending are unsustainable. And if we continue on that trajectory. the America that we know. love. and admire will be severely threatened. Our excessive spending threatens the very foundation of our economy and our way of life. We could very well find ourselves in a position. soon. similar to todays Greece. As we saw last week when the House considered the legislation on credits for refurbishing homes by my friend from Vermont . Congress is beginning to realize the magnitude of the Nations fiscal problemthough the congressional majority leadership has not yet realized it or simply does not care. I may have voted in favor of the underlying legislation if the majority. nevertheless. had allowed the House to consider and vote on amendments that would have reduced the spending levels on the bill. For example. my colleague Representative MARIO DIAzBALART of Florida came before the Rules Committee yesterday to request that the committee allow the House to consider his amendment to cut the authorization of the bill from 5 years to 3 years. His amendment would have lowered the cost of the overall bill. It would also have given Congress the ability to come back in 3 years and determine if the legislation was achieving its intended purpose. Perhaps if that amendment had been allowed. a number of Members like myself who are concerned about the uncontrolled spending of this majority could have voted for the bill. Instead. the majority in the Rules Committee decided that they would block consideration of the Mario DiazBalart amendment and also the Sessions amendment. amendments that sought to reduce the spending in the bill. Not only did they block the DiazBalart and Sessions amendments. they blocked out almost threefourths of the Republican amendments submitted to the Rules Committee. while allowing nearly 90 percent of the Democrat amendments. So today we will consider four Republican amendments and 48 Democrat amendments. Thats quite a contrast. Its especially glaring when you consider that we were told that it would not be this way. The distinguished Speaker promised the American people that her party would run the most open and bipartisan Congress in history. yet week after week the majority continues to block an open process. We have yet to consider even one open rule during this entire Congressnot even on the historically open appropriations process. It is quite sad. I reserve my time.