[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 2 (Thursday, January 5, 1995)]
[House]
[Page H129]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                          IT WAS A GOOD START

  (Mr. CRAPO asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. CRAPO. Mr. Speaker, yesterday we truly did get off to a good 
start. We began fulfilling many of the promises to reform this Congress 
and to do what the American people have asked us to do, and we did it 
in a bipartisan fashion.
  Yes, there are a few detractors who are trying to point to what could 
have been done in addition yesterday, but there are very few that we 
will hear who will criticize the reforms that were put into place 
yesterday, and it was a good start.
  And what those few detractors do not point out is that the gift ban 
has been committed to as an issue that will come forward and will be 
addressed in this Congress. Yet the way the vote was structured 
yesterday, had we voted to support the motions that were made, they 
would have stalled the critical reforms that we did put into place. 
They would have stalled the term limits that were put into place on our 
committee chairmen, and our Speaker and other leadership. They would 
have stalled the effort to require rollcall votes on spending and 
taxing measures every time. They would have stalled the effort to 
reduce the ability of this Congress to continue to raise taxes on the 
American people. They would have stalled the effort to eliminate the 
budget gimmicks.
  We had a good start yesterday. Let us continue in the bipartisan 
fashion we made.


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