Date: 1981-03-25
Speaker: JAMES K. COYNE (republican)
Chamber: H

Mr. Speaker. the votes which Members of this body cast today may be among the most important of the entire Congress. I do not think that this is just because of the dollar amounts that have been discussed on both sides of the aisle. rather. it is because of what each Members vote will signify about his or her real commitment to fight inflation by demanding more responsible patterns and levels of Government spendIng. Before being a Member of this august body. I was a faculty member at the Wharton School of Business. Economists now realize that. in microeconomic terms. citizens react on an individual level in response to what their future expectations are in regard to what the economy and what Government will be doing in the months ahead. And that is why what we do today is so terribly important. because I think it shows to the public. or will show. what they may expect with regard to Government spending in the months ahead. Will they expect a true commitment to reduce Federal spending and efficiency in Washington? Or will they continue to get the kind of double talk and double accounting which they have become accustomed to for more than a generation? It may well be impossible to find one among us who did not campaign on a platform calling for improved Federal responsiveness to the real needs of the American people and for greater accountability of the Federal Government. Today we have an opportunity to prove to our constituents that we are serious about these commitments. We all recognize the dramatic plight of the American economy and the need to restrain Government spending. I believe it is incumbent upon us as Members of this Nations highest legislative body to show that we can and that we will impose some sense of fiscal responsibility in the workings of our own house. Let us put our own house in order. The measures to be voted on today offer a choice between a merely symbolic gesture to rein in the spending of these committee budgets or a sincere effort to significantly reduce this spending and turn around what has been an Indefensible pattern of explosive growth and expense. Even in our current economic state. the rate of inflation does not begin to approach the rate at which committee budgets have increased. In just the last 10 years we have seen a shocking sevenfold increase in the amounts allocated for House committees. This is truly a critical time. Our most pressing needs cannot continue to be met without a vastly improved economy. Inflation. which so erodes the security of all Americans and does most harm to those with fewest resources. must be halted. Recent actions in both Houses of Congress prove that there is broad bipartisan support for necessary reductions in the Federal budget. But we must begin at home to implement these needed reductions. Our constituents will surely not be so naive as to believe that House committee functions today actually require 700 percent more money than they used in We will be making many difficult decisions in the weeks to come. Todays decision. though. is not difficult and there is an impressively clear need to respond to the American voters by supporting the motion of my most distinguished colleague from Minnesota. As you all know. this motion will recommit the committee funding resolutions with Instructions to reduce the amounts by 10 percent from last years expenditure. The 52 Republican freshmen. I am proud to say. have already indicated our united support for such action by unanimously approving a resolution calling for such a reduction. I urge my colleagues to support the motion to recommit as the only viable way to demonstrate to the American public that we do not intend to exempt ourselves from the overriding mandate to make all aspects of American government more responsible and accountable to the American people.