Date: 2009-03-31
Speaker: DANIEL E. LUNGREN (republican)
Chamber: H
State: Cali

fornia. Mr. Speaker. I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker. I have spoken in support of this resolution. and I continue to do so. I would just say with respect to the statements made about the Small Business Committee. it received the single largest in6rease of all the committees of the House of Representatives. I might say we actually managed for the Budget Committee to come in with no increase whatsoever. We had the Intelligence Committee come in with a 1.5 percent increase below inflation. I remember when we asked them why they were coming in for such a small request. they said: Well. we had to increase some of our things last year. We were moving into a new SCIF. we had a new meeting place. we bad to have new computers. But we made those expenditures last year. we dont need them this year. It was refreshing to actually hear that sort of thing. And there is no indication that. by virtue of the fact that we are giving them but a 1.5 percent increase. that we are trying to short them in any way. form. or fashion. The Rules Committee also came in below 2 percent. And. again. they talked about the fact that they were trying to keep themselves within those limits. I would just say. however. with respect to some things that have been said on the floor. I just wish that in the stimulus package we passed it would have had as much in it for small business as we have for the Small Business Committee in this particular resolution relative to other things. I think we could have done far better than that. and particularly with the tax consequences of the Presidents proposal. Mr. Speaker. because of some of the questions brought up by Mr. ISSA and others. we and our committee fought and we brought this up on our side of the aisle. it was supported by the chairman. that we would try and increase the transparency of the committees of jurisdiction so that in fact people could make judgments as to whether they were carrying out the oversight function. and we do it in two ways. Let me just underscore that. One is. there is already an existing requirement that every committee report on a monthly basis as to what they are doing. If you look at those reports now. sometimes they are kind of difficult to decipher. So trying to make it much more clear for both the committee and the public. we are working on a template so that information can be presented and easily accessible. We also are working then to put that on the committee Web site so that people can see and make judgments for themselves. That is one way in which we are trying to ensure that we in the Congress in our committees do the oversight. as well as the legislative work. that we are supposed to do. The second way we did it was to requestand it is part of this resolutionthat the chairpersons and the ranking members of each committee come back to us at the end of the year. And its not that we are going to question the subject matter that they are dealing with or question how they handle things. but rather we are going to just have some inquiries. looking at those reports. and seeing how what they are doing matched up with their budget request. One of the areas in which we are required to provide oversight of this House is to make sure that oversight is being done. So I think we have tried to answer the question of .whether or not real oversight is going to be done by the way that we made these changes contained in this resolution. I would hope that people understand that I take oversight responsibility very. very seriously. the chairman has indicated that he does as well. and. this committee will do its work to ensure that the American public can make their judgments. It seems to me that is what we are supposed to be doing. If all we are is a rubberstamp committee. the public can say we are not doing our.job. Mr. Speaker. I do not think we are a rubberstamp committee with this chairman. and I am certainly going to work with him to ensure that is not the case. We are going to make sure that we do the peoples work and that all the committees do as well. If. at the end of the year we cant prove it to ourselves. we are not going to be able to prove it to the public. and then it is on us. And I would hope that we will step up to the plate. take the responsibility. and do the job that we are sent here to do not only as individual Members but as the collective work of Members in committee. And if the chairman has no other speakers. I would say that we ought to support this resolution. and I yield back the balance of my time.