Legislative Program
Mr. CANTOR. Madam Speaker, I yield to the gentleman from Maryland, the majority leader, for the purpose of announcing next week's schedule.
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Mr. CANTOR. Madam Speaker, the gentleman mentioned the troop funding in his schedule for next week. I know originally the goal was to fund our troops by Memorial Day. That didn't happen. Then it became the goal of July 4th, and that didn't happen. I know that the gentleman and I are both committed to getting this critical funding for our men and women in uniform, and I would just suggest to the gentleman it is probably the most direct route to getting our mutual goal accomplished of getting this bill across the floor, that perhaps he and the majority ought to consider taking up the Senate-passed legislation and send it right to the President.
I can say, Madam Speaker, to the gentleman that the Senate bill does have 218 votes on this House floor, and would ask if the supplemental is coming to the House floor next week, whether that is his intention, to go ahead, take this route, expedite it, so our troops can get the money they need.
I yield.
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Mr. CANTOR. I know the gentleman is in receipt of the same information that I am about the urgency now being communicated to us for the need for that money to be delivered. I would say, Madam Speaker, I probably have a little different view as to the intentions of the Senate to try and deliver on stripping out the House amendments that were attached to the supplemental bill, and would say, again, to the gentleman, House Republicans stand ready to vote in an expeditious way on the Senate-passed bill in its original form, and I look forward to being able to deliver that.
I yield.
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Mr. CANTOR. Madam Speaker, as we're discussing the schedule for next week, I believe it's important to announce the eighth YouCut vote that will take place on the House floor next week. Over 1.3 million votes have been cast on YouCut to date at the RepublicanWhip.House.Gov/YouCut Web Site. We will vote sometime mid-week on one of five proposals selected by the people of America. The first would be to eliminate mandatory GPO bill printing, which is a $35 million savings. Another would be to eliminate Senator Dodd's health care clinic earmark in the Obama Care health care bill, estimated to save another $100 million. Next would be, Madam Speaker, an effort to prohibit subsidies for long-distance ``first class'' sleeper train tickets, estimated at a cost savings of $1.2 billion. Another, Madam Speaker, could be to reform the Energy Star program effort, which requires companies to pay for the cost of the program, saving the taxpayers $655 million.
Another could be, depending on the vote and the will of the American people, an effort to prevent LIHEAP payments to fraudulent claims, an estimated savings of hundreds of millions of dollars to the taxpayer.
Madam Speaker, I would say the gentleman's party has been extolling the virtues of cutting $7 billion from the President's $1.12 trillion FY11 budget, $7 billion. And I would say to the gentleman--I know we've had a lot of discussion about YouCut and the amount of money that we are attempting to cut from the Federal deficit through our program, and, in fact, at this point that total is now reaching $130 billion. I know that many in his party have been dismissive of this program, saying that that's not real money in Washington. And I will just point out to the gentleman, if individuals on his side of the aisle think that $7 billion reaches a significant milestone, I would say as well, $130 billion of proposed cuts would do just as well, if not better.
So, Madam Speaker, I would like to, at this point, take a quick moment to congratulate someone who works together with our staff tirelessly behind the scenes, someone on the staff of the majority leader, Austin Burnes, who got a moment to get away from the floor prior to the recess to attend his own wedding. We wish the gentleman great success and best wishes in his nuptials.
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