Conference Report On H.R. 2918, Legislative Branch Appropriations Act, 2010

Floor Speech

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Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, I am privileged to have had an opportunity to work this year with the chairman of this subcommittee, Ms. Wasserman Schultz. And let me just echo what she was saying about all the staff that has helped on the majority and minority this year in putting this bill together. It is a good bill. We have worked very well together, all the subcommittee members on the minority and the majority side. So I am very happy to report that she has worked in a very open manner through this entire process, been very responsive to the concerns and input of all the members of the subcommittee.

We have worked very closely, and we have worked in a spirit of what I consider real bipartisanship for the needs of the legislative branch. I think it would be fair to say that Ms. Wasserman Schultz has actually gone beyond the call of duty to make sure that this has been a fair process, along with all of her staff on the majority side. So I again want to especially thank the majority and the minority staff for all their work in putting this together, because certainly they do great work in making sure that what we need is put before us.

Division A of this conference report represents the efforts of the conferees to bring back to the House an agreement which was comprised in a bipartisanship manner and continues the priorities of the House of Representatives. The conference provides a total of $4.656 billion, which is an increase of $155 million, or 3.4 percent, over fiscal year 2009.

Among the highlights of the agreement are:

$1.369 billion for the House of Representatives. This provides an appropriate level of funding for the Members' representational allowance;

$328.3 million for the Capitol Police. This amount supports the current level of 1,799 officers and completes the Library of Congress Police merger;

$602 million for the Architect of the Capitol. This includes a special emphasis on funding life safety and rehabilitation of critical infrastructure. Also, there is $50 million for a new House Historic Buildings Revitalization Trust Fund to more evenly spread out the cost of repairing and revitalizing the historic icon buildings such as the Cannon House Office Building.

Also included in the bill is $643 million for the Library of Congress. This amount includes $15 million to fund the first year of the Library's 5-year information technology initiative.

There is $147 million for the Government Printing Office. This amount includes $7.8 million to continue the development of the Federal Digital System.

Funds are also provided for additional workforce to meet the congressional demands for the Congressional Budget Office and the Government Accountability Office.

Our conferees did their work and addressed many of the competing priorities and individual agency challenges that come with this particular piece of legislation. I know that the chairman of the committee, Ms. Wasserman Schultz, feels as I do, that it is nice to have this piece of legislation behind us so that we can move forward. We have been working on this legislation since the very first part of the year, and I know it will be a great birthday present for the chairman, as she celebrates her birthday this weekend, to have this bill behind us. But I am very thankful for the work that we have put in together.

That being said, I think it is important that I stress the point that I am disappointed that the process has brought us to where we are on this Legislative Branch Appropriations bill because it has turned out to be the vehicle for the continuing resolution. This is simply not a reasonable or responsible kind of governing that our constituents sent us here to Washington to do.

As the ranking member of the Legislative Branch Subcommittee, I believe, of course, this bill is very important; but moving this bill forward first, even before Homeland Security and the security of the Nation, is not the proper way to prioritize funding or to meet the critical needs that face the American people.

Madam Speaker, we need a clean continuing resolution and a clean Legislative Branch Appropriations bill, which is what this committee was prepared to do. And while I support the underlying bill and the underlying work that is in this bill, I regret that because of the attachment of the continuing resolution to this conference report I am unable to support this agreement in the House this morning.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

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