Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act, 2011

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. SIMPSON. I thank the chairman for yielding, and let me thank you for all the hard work that you've done on this appropriation bill in bringing it to the floor. I know it's been a tough task.

Mr. Speaker, the budget for fiscal year 2011 is now 6 months and 2 weeks overdue. It's time to finish this budget.

Through this legislation, Chairman Rogers and the Appropriations Committee achieved what some thought would be impossible. We have succeeded in cutting $40 billion--that's $40 billion--from current spending levels. No other single bill in history has cut more spending. Think about that for just a minute.

While the $40 billion reduction in spending--and it is $40 billion, contrary to some of the reports that have been out there that it is $300 and-some-odd million or something like this. This is $40 billion in real reductions in spending. While this is $40 billion, it is just a step. But it is a step in the right direction.

We should also think about how the nature of this national conversation on spending has changed. For several years, we debated in Congress how much we were going to increase spending each year. Our debate today centers not on whether we should cut spending but how much spending should be cut. That is a sea change in the debate--both in Congress and in the Nation. And it's a change in the right direction.

The Interior Subcommittee, which I am privileged to chair, has cut spending by 8.1 percent, or $2.62 billion below the FY10 enacted level. Virtually every agency within the budget has been cut. The CR cuts EPA funding by $1.6 billion, or 16 percent below the FY10 enacted level. Funding levels for land acquisition programs are reduced by $149 million, or 33 percent, and on and on.

Even with these deep cuts, funding levels for operational accounts are sustained to prevent employee furloughs and the closure of national parks and forests, wildlife refuges, Smithsonian museums, and other sites.

Let me just say for a minute about the Energy and Water appropriation. Although no funds were included in the Energy and Water appropriation to continue and proceed to build Yucca Mountain, I don't want anyone--and I'm speaking particularly to the NRC and the Department of Energy--to misinterpret this vote. Congress has voted and spoke many times on the issue of Yucca Mountain. Do not misinterpret this vote that this is a vote against Yucca Mountain. What we are saying to the NRC is proceed with Yucca Mountain, and NRC, do your job, which they have failed to do.

As I close my remarks, I want to echo what both Chairman Rogers and Ranking Member Dicks said about the staff. Unless you've been on this committee or on any of the committees, the public generally doesn't know the hard work that goes on behind the scenes to make this all possible. I want to thank the staff of both the Appropriations Committee, and really the staff of the House, the staff who sits up here on the dais. They do a tremendous job for us for which this Congress would not be able to operate as effectively as we do. Some people think that's not too effectively. But, actually, we wouldn't be able to do our job.

And most people don't understand that when we went home last Friday after extending the government funding for a week, we went home. They were here all day Saturday until well into Sunday morning, and then all day Sunday until well into Monday morning in order to get the job done so that we could do this for the American people.

So I want you to vote for this budget. I urge an ``aye'' vote so that we can get on debating what the minority whip mentioned, the important priorities for the FY12 budget in the Ryan Republican budget. We appreciate that.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source