Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2015

Floor Speech

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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Chairman, I rise to offer another amendment to the Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act for fiscal year 2015.

This amendment pertains to the Department of Agriculture's Office of General Counsel.

By way of background, this office was appropriated $41,202,000 in fiscal year 2014. The President's budget for FY15 requested a steep increase of $6,365,000. The President attempts to justify this 15.4 percent increase by saying that these moneys will go towards: ``31 full-time equivalents to handle an increased workload, to support current staff, rent, and enhance OGC's information technology reporting capabilities and litigation management tools.'' In other words, most of that money will be used to hire both government attorneys and to give raises to government attorneys already on staff.

You see, because I am from the Western States, I take issue with that.

I represent a rural district in western Arizona, and I serve on the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees much of the executive branch's activities with regard to resources and lands. I am quite familiar with the effects government attorneys often have on States, their resources, and their lands, and my colleagues and I are generally disgusted with the overreaching policies the Obama administration has imposed on Western States. Therefore, I oppose any plans by the Department to hire more government attorneys, many of whom will be used to implement and defend the administration's overreaching landgrabs, watergrabs, and climate change policies.

I appreciate that this committee decided not to fulfill the President's request in full, but it did propose appropriating roughly half of his request. I simply cannot, in good conscience, allow more attorneys to be hired at the USDA--attorneys who will infringe upon many States' 10th Amendment rights.

My amendment proposes to cut most of the increase the Appropriations Committee has offered in this bill, but it leaves a portion of the increase for the sole purpose of improving the informational technology of the Office of the General Counsel.

I understand the Federal Government generally has major issues with information technology. Our departments and agencies are often using archaic IT systems and many should be updated for efficiency and security purposes.

IT issues are often highlighted at my other committee assignment on the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee. This a bipartisan issue and has been addressed regularly by Chairman Issa, Ranking Member Cummings, and the rest of my colleagues.

To close, I ask my colleagues to support this amendment. It would help to reserve States' rights, curb executive branch overreach, cut spending, and improve information technology systems all at once.

As always, I appreciate the work of the committee, particularly the work of the chair and the ranking member.

I urge passage of my commonsense amendment.

Mr. Chairman, I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Chairman, I would like to reiterate the government's overreach, particularly in Western States. With due respect, this budget does not look at the appropriate utilization of funds for attorneys. And when you look at the overreach of this administration with climate change, with water, and with resources, it is about time that we made conscious use of attorneys' fees.

Mr. Chairman, I yield back the balance of my time.

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