Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011
Floor Speech
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from Virginia is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. WOLF. This account has been hit very, very hard already. Each reduction in the bill was carefully determined. The funding level provided for NIST construction in the bill is $89 million below FY 2010.
NIST has played a key role in enabling innovative ideas with regard to strengthening infrastructure for advance manufacturing, service and science.
NIST works with the private sector, other government agencies and universities to develop and apply the technology, measurements and standards needed for new and improved products.
We have already reduced the funding in this account quite dramatically, and this would really, I think, hurt the jobs effort and hurt manufacturing.
Mr. DICKS. Will the gentleman yield?
Mr. WOLF. I yield to the gentleman from Washington.
Mr. DICKS. I strongly support the gentleman's position here. We've already cut this account. There's $58 million in the account; a reduction of $89 million, or 60 percent below FY10. And the NIST does very good work. So I support the chairman and in opposition to the Latta amendment.
Mr. WOLF. Reclaiming my time, again, we want science, jobs, math, science, physics, chemistry, biology to create opportunities for manufacturing.
I urge a ``no'' vote on the amendment.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from Virginia is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. WOLF. I would tell the gentleman that the President of the United States failed to do what he was elected to do--that was to lead this country--by rejecting the Simpson-Bowles commission recommendation.
Mr. Chairman, President Obama supported and appointed the people to the Simpson-Bowles commission. Then we saw in the State of the Union message that none of the cuts that are being done tonight would have had to have been done had the President done what he should have done with regard to the Simpson-Bowles commission.
If I had been appointed to the Simpson-Bowles commission, I would have been supportive of it. If Tom Coburn and Dick Durbin can be in support of it, hopefully we can come together in a bipartisan manner; but all of the opposition would not even have had to take place if the President had not failed to provide the leadership that he failed to provide.
This bill makes deliberate choices within NASA to strike an appropriate balance between achieving budget savings, procurement support for NASA's $16 billion in annual contracts, and safety and mission assurance to prevent spaceflight accidents. To do this, you would almost guarantee that something could potentially happen.
I teach security to prevent the Chinese from having cyber attacks. We had hearings the other day, and we learned that the Chinese have had cyber attacks against NASA's computers. This amendment would say that it's okay, that we can have the cyber attacks. We're going to put it somewhere else.
In addition--and I see the gen tle lady from Houston is here--this amendment will cost NASA's civil servants and contractors between 1,500 and 2,000 jobs.
Had President Obama done what he should have done by appointing that commission, we wouldn't even have had any cuts here. We would have been doing what we had to do. Since we're talking about crime, Willie Sutton said he robbed banks. The reason he robbed banks is that that's where the money is. The money is in entitlements. Had we dealt with the Obama commission of Simpson-Bowles, we would not be where we are today.
I yield back the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. WOLF. I thank the gentleman.
It's my understanding that the gentleman is withdrawing the amendment. I want to thank the gentleman for raising some critically important points about the value of NASA's human exploration program and the need to fully support it. And no one is a stronger supporter of NASA than the gentleman from Texas, except maybe Mr. Culberson who is equally supportive.
I share his concern with ensuring exploration is adequately funded and that NASA remains on a clear path to achieve the human space flight goals laid out in last year's authorization. I will be happy to work together as closely as we possibly can to finish FY 2011 and move forward into FY 2012 to maintain a robust human space flight program at NASA, just as Mr. Olson would like it to be.
In doing so, I agree that it will be necessary to identify and eliminate duplicative, wasteful, or lower-priority activities in NASA's science programs or any other NASA account, for that matter, so that we can remain on a sustainable overall budget path. I look forward to working with the gentleman and our colleagues who support NASA and thank him for his continuing efforts in this area.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from Virginia is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. WOLF. I won't go into great length about it. The very fact that the President has failed to address the issue of entitlements, has walked away from his own commission, the Bowles-Simpson Commission that had the support of Senator Coburn and Senator Durbin, leads you to activity like this. Many times Members are frustrated to deal with this issue.
We have $14 trillion of debt, and in the statement I gave on the floor several weeks ago, I said had I been a member of the commission, I would have voted for it. I think it was a missed opportunity. I also said that failure to address the issue of dealing with Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security will unfortunately result in many times the poor being hurt. In the Bible it says in Proverbs when you give to the poor, you loan to God, and I am sensitive to that. But the very fact that the administration, the President appoints the commission, comes out at a big press conference, and then walks away from it, leads you to some activity like this.
This would wipe out Legal Services, so I strongly urge Members to oppose the amendment, and I urge Members to contact the White House and ask them to support entitlement reform in the Simpson-Bowles package.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I must insist on my point of order.
I wanted to just say, I appreciate the comments of the gentleman from New York (Mr. Serrano) and the Members on the other side of the aisle. I share many of his concerns. However, as the gentleman knows, there is not an offset to this bill and the amendment proposes a net increase in budget authority in the bill. The amendment is not in order under section 3(j)(3) of House Resolution 5, 112th Congress, which states, ``It shall not be in order to consider an amendment to a general appropriations bill proposing a net increase in budget authority in the bill unless considered en bloc with another amendment or amendments proposing an equal or greater decrease in such budget authority pursuant to clause 2(f) of rule XXI.'' The amendment proposes a net increase in the budget authority in the bill. Therefore, it is in violation of such section.
I ask for a ruling of the Chair.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. WOLF. Mr. Chairman, I rise in opposition to the amendment.
The Acting CHAIR. The gentleman from Virginia is recognized for 5 minutes.
Mr. WOLF. I won't go into great length about it. The very fact that the President has failed to address the issue of entitlements, has walked away from his own commission, the Bowles-Simpson Commission that had the support of Senator Coburn and Senator Durbin, leads you to activity like this. Many times Members are frustrated to deal with this issue.
We have $14 trillion of debt, and in the statement I gave on the floor several weeks ago, I said had I been a member of the commission, I would have voted for it. I think it was a missed opportunity. I also said that failure to address the issue of dealing with Medicare and Medicaid and Social Security will unfortunately result in many times the poor being hurt. In the Bible it says in Proverbs when you give to the poor, you loan to God, and I am sensitive to that. But the very fact that the administration, the President appoints the commission, comes out at a big press conference, and then walks away from it, leads you to some activity like this.
This would wipe out Legal Services, so I strongly urge Members to oppose the amendment, and I urge Members to contact the White House and ask them to support entitlement reform in the Simpson-Bowles package.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Mr. WOLF. Reclaiming my time, I believe that if President Reagan were President of the United States today, he would provide the leadership, because he did in saving Social Security. It was the Greenspan Commission, and he worked with them in a bipartisan way. I think if we had a President like Ronald Reagan, we would be resolving these issues.
With that, I urge opposition to the amendment.
I yield back the balance of my time.
BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT
Source