Legislative Branch Appropriations Act 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. HALL. Madam Chairman, I have an amendment at the desk.

The CHAIR. The Clerk will designate the amendment.

The text of the amendment is as follows:

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

Sec. 211. None of the funds made available by this Act may be used to deliver a printed copy of the report of disbursements for the operations of the House of Representatives under section 106 of the House of Representatives Administrative Reform Technical Corrections Act (2 U.S.C. 5535) to the office of a Member of the House of Representatives (including a Delegate or Resident Commissioner to the Congress).

The CHAIR. Pursuant to House Resolution 557, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hall) and a Member opposed each will control 5 minutes.

The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas.

Mr. HALL. Madam Chairman, I would like to thank my good friend Chairman Cole and the Appropriations Committee for allowing me to offer this amendment in conjunction with Congressman McCaul. My amendment today simply prohibits the Statement of Disbursements of the House from being distributed the old-fashioned way--through print.

A lot of people say I am old-fashioned and I am behind the times, but I have a Facebook account, I tweet, and just this week my congressional Web site was singled out for the Silver Mouse Award, placing it in the top 6 percent of all congressional Web sites for transparency, ease of use, and accessibility of constituent services.

Right now, the Chief Administrative Officer of the House distributes 441 copies of its three-volume Statement of Disbursements to the House at a cost of well over $300,000 per year. This quarterly public report of all reports and expenditures for U.S. House of Representatives Members, committees, leadership, officers, and offices was more than 2,400 pages long in its last edition. Multiply that by 441, and you have 100,000 pages of printed material, all of which can easily be accessed on the CAO's Web site.

To be clear, my amendment does nothing to prohibit the CAO from making the Statement of Disbursements of the House available online to Members as they currently do. But if I can learn to communicate electronically, I sure don't see why the Federal Government can't do the same thing.

Mr. COLE. Will the gentleman yield?

Mr. HALL. I yield to the gentleman from Oklahoma.

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