[House Hearing, 110 Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
MARKUP OF H. RES. 202: COMMITTEE FUNDING RESOLUTION
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MEETING
before the
COMMITTEE ON
HOUSE ADMINISTRATION
HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
ONE HUNDRED TENTH CONGRESS
FIRST SESSION
__________
MEETING HELD IN WASHINGTON, DC, MARCH 1, 2007
__________
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COMMITTEE ON HOUSE ADMINISTRATION
JUANITA MILLENDER-McDONALD, California, Chairwoman
ROBERT A. BRADY, Pennsylvania VERNON J. EHLERS, Michigan,
ZOE LOFGREN, California Ranking Minority Member
MICHAEL E. CAPUANO, Massachusetts DANIEL E. LUNGREN, California
CHARLES A. GONZALEZ, Texas KEVIN McCARTHY, California
SUSAN DAVIS, California
MARKUP OF H. RES. 202: COMMITTEE FUNDING RESOLUTION
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THURSDAY, MARCH 1, 2007
House of Representatives,
Committee on House Administration,
Washington, DC.
The committee met, pursuant to call, at 4:05 p.m., in room
1310, Longworth House Office Building, Hon. Juanita Millender-
McDonald (chairwoman of the committee) presiding.
Present: Representatives Millender-McDonald, Capuano,
Gonzalez, Davis, Ehlers, Lofgren and McCarthy.
Staff Present: Charles Howell, Chief Counsel; Matt Pinkus,
Professional Staff/Parliamentarian; and Kristin McCowan, Chief
Legislative Clerk.
The Chairwoman. The committee will now come to order. Good
afternoon. I do recognize a quorum is present. With that, I
wanted to just say that the chairpersons whom I spoke with
today, while they were a little, well not disgruntled, but they
were a little disappointed with the very slight increase, they
accepted it very well. They were very gracious, and so we are
very pleased that all committee budgets are now in.
With that, I call up House Resolution 202, the primary
expense resolution for House Committees for the 110th Congress.
It is available in the Members' packets if they choose to
review that. Without objection, the Resolution will be
considered as read and open to amendment at any time.
[The information follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
The Chairwoman. The Chair will now offer the Chair's mark,
an amendment in the nature of a substitute, which is in the
Members' packet.
[The information follows:]
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
The Chairwoman. Are there any objections to dispensing with
the reading of the amendment? Hearing none, the Chair now
recognizes herself for 5 minutes to speak on the amendment.
I am going to forgo that. I think, as I said earlier, the
Chairs were very cordial and were amenable to the slight
increase that we are giving them. All budgets are in, and all
of the Chairs have now consented to their budgets. So we are
able to move forward.
I would like to thank the Members of this Committee who
were so diligent in staying for all those long hours yesterday.
I think it was the Ranking Member who said he had no idea we
would finish in one day, but indeed, we did, and it was quite a
leap. Nevertheless, here we are now to mark this up, and send
this to the Floor in the form of a resolution. This is an
omnibus package.
Without objection, the previous question is ordered on the
amendment in the nature of a substitute. The question is on the
amendment. All those in favor say aye. Those opposed, no.
The ayes have it, and the amendment is agreed to.
Now I would like to recognize Mr. Gonzalez to offer a
motion.
Mr. Gonzalez. Thank you very much, Madam Chair, and I would
move that the Committee report House Resolution 202 favorably
to the House with an amendment.
The Chairwoman. Thank you. The question is on the motion to
report favorably. Before I take the ayes and nays, I will defer
to the Ranking Member for his comments.
Mr. Ehlers. Thank you, Madam Chair.
First of all, congratulations on putting this together, and
congratulations also on our joint effort to resolve the
difficulties yesterday. I am pleased that issue was resolved. I
do have to say, and this is certainly no reflection on you,
that I am not particularly happy with the budget. I am not
happy with the entire budget process this year. I suspect that
is true of everyone in this committee, majority or minority
party. This is simply not a good way to do business, and I
think, given that, the entire situation we have had to endure
this year, I think that this committee and especially you,
Madam Chair, have done the best job that we could do, given the
difficulties. So I would certainly vote for this, but I hope in
the future that the entire budget process will be more rational
so that we, in fact, can do a better job in this committee of
allocating resources to the committees. The committees are the
backbone of the Congress, and most people don't realize that.
If they don't have the funds to operate, basically the people
of this nation have lost their voice in properly operating the
government. We essentially defer to the administration to run
it the way they want because we don't have the funds to keep
track of it and allocate properly and do the oversight that is
necessary in each and every one of our committees. So, as I
say, this is not a great way to do it, but we did the best we
could under the circumstances; I think next year will certainly
be better. Maybe the only bright spot of this is that, with all
these budgeting problems, the Members of Congress didn't get a
pay increase, so that provides extra money for the rest of the
government, including the committees. That probably is not a
very popular thing to say in front of my colleagues, but
nevertheless, we did save the government some money on that.
With that, I would yield back, and I thank the Chair for her
work on this.
The Chairwoman. Thank you so much, Mr. Ranking Member. You
are right. None of us are pleased with the budget and the very
small amount we gave the Chairpersons. But then those are the
things we have to live with when things aren't going the way
that we wanted them to go. But we do have fiscal year 2008, and
perhaps something will come from that.
Now there is a motion on the floor to report this out
favorably. All those in favor say aye. Those opposed say no.
The ayes have it. The motion is agreed to. Without
objection, a motion to reconsider is laid on the table.
Mr. Ehlers, you might want to take this opportunity to file
your minority views.
Mr. Ehlers. I certainly would be pleased with that.
Madam Chair, I just wanted to rise, pursuant to clause 2(l)
of rule XI, I announce that I am requesting the two additional
calendar days provided by that rule during which members may
file additional views.
The Chairwoman. The Chair notes that the gentleman has
exercised his right to seek time to file views. Without
objection, staff may be authorized to make any technical or
conforming changes to the resolution prior to filing. That does
it for us. If there is nothing else--
Mr. Capuano. Motion to adjourn.
The Chairwoman. This committee is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:12 p.m., the committee was adjourned.]