Date: 2005-07-28
Speaker: LINCOLN DIAZ-BALART (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Florida

Mr. Speaker. House Resolution 396 is a traditional. standard rule for consideration of the conference report for the fiscal year 2006 Legislative Branch Appropriations Act. The rule provides 1 hour of general debate. equally divided and controlled by the chairman and ranking minority member of the Committee on Appropriations. The legislation before us appropriates $3.084 billioA for operations of the legislative branch. The bill is fiscally sound. It includes a modest increase from the bill of fiscal year 2005. In accordance with long practice. Mr. Speaker. each body determined its own fiscal requirements. As such. the conference report includes $1.1 billion the House of Representatives originally appropriated for its operations earlier this year. It also includes the $759 million the Senate appropriated for its operations. The appropriations for both the House of Representatives and the . Senate includes funds for Members representational allowances. leadership and committee offices. These funds will help Members fulfill their duties to legislate and to oversee. These funds also help Congress complete the vitally important task. as I have just mentioned. which is the oversight of the executive branch. The Constitution grants Congress broad powers that include the extraordinarily important power of oversight. This includes obviously getting to know what the executive is doing. how programs are being administered. by whom and at what cost. and whether officials are complying with the law. with the intent of the law. For the Capitol Police. who each and every day protect us. our staffs. and our constituents visiting the Capitol. the bill appropriates over $249 million. This level of funding will support the current staffing level of 1.592 officers. an additional 43 officers for the Library of Congress and 45 new officers for the Capitol Visitors Center. Also included is an inspector general for the Capitol Police to help the Capitol Police with administrative operations such as financial management and budgeting. The bill also includes an important piece of legislation. the Continuity in Representation Act of 2005. As we all know. Mr. Speaker. on September 11. 2001. flight 93 was headed toward us here. If it were not for the heroic acts of the passengers on flight 93. we could very well have faced a situation where Congress may not have been able to function. We cannot allow this to happen. We certainly have to do everything we can to not allow it to happen. 0J 1115 H.R. 841 would accelerate elections in case a terrorist attack leaves the House of Representatives with over 100 vacancies. It provides for the expedited special election of new Members to fill seats left vacant in "extraordinary circumstances." The House passed this bill earlier this year by an overwhelming bipartisan margin of 329 to 68. In the 108th Congress. the House passed a similar bill by a vote of 306 to 97. Each time the Senate has failed to consider this vital piece of legislation. so the Speaker wisely asked that this very important legislation be included in this process. We must not ignore the threat to our constitutional duty. It is time that we have legislation such as this that can handle such an inconceivably horrible possibility and does not leave our duty to legislate and oversee in limbo. Mr. Speaker. this is a good bill. essential to our continued ability to legislate. to our power of oversight and the continuity of government. I would like to thank the gentleman from California (Chairman LEWIS) and the gentleman from Wisconsin . ranking member. for their leadership on this. And I thank the distinguished gentlewoman from California for her hard work and friendship. I urge my colleagues to suppQrt both the rule and the underlying legislation. Mr. Speaker. I reserve the balance of my time.