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Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act

Date: May 19, 2005
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Foreign Affairs Government Operations


DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2006 -- (House of Representatives - May 19, 2005)

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AMENDMENT NO. 3 OFFERED BY MR. GARRETT OF NEW JERSEY

Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. Mr. Chairman, I offer an amendment.

The Acting CHAIRMAN. The Clerk will designate the amendment.

The text of the amendment is as follows:

Amendment No. 3 offered by Mr. Garrett of New Jersey:

At the end of the bill (before the short title), insert the following:

SEC. __. None of the funds made available in this Act may be used to send or otherwise pay for the attendance of more than 50 Federal employees at any single conference occurring outside the United States.

The Acting CHAIRMAN. Pursuant to the order of the House today, the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.

The CHAIR recognizes the gentleman from New Jersey (Mr. Garrett).

Mr. GARRETT of New Jersey. Mr. Chairman, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Chairman, the one question that I get when I go back to my district is, what is it that the Federal Government and Congress spend all their money on, and some of the things that we hear about sometimes is excess of spending in various areas.

One of the things that raises the ire of a lot of people is when they hear about trips by Members of the executive branch and others going overseas for maybe notable and worthwhile causes, but in excess of the number of people that we really need to send there. We have heard examples in past Congresses, and we have raised this amendment in past Congresses when we heard about 100, 150, 200 members of the executive branch going over for various causes.

We present an answer to this problem by saying that whenever an agency decides to send someone overseas for a trip, we should limit the number of Federal employees that go. My amendment will do that very simply. It will limit the number of Federal employees that are sent to international conferences funded under this bill to 50.

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