[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 33 (Wednesday, February 22, 1995)]
[House]
[Pages H2032-H2033]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


 ACCOMPLISHMENTS OF THE 104TH CONGRESS, 50 DAYS INTO THE CONTRACT WITH 
                                AMERICA

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Kansas [Mr. Tiahrt] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. TIAHRT. Mr. Speaker, what a day it was today. Fifty days into the 
session, and we have had much to rejoice about and celebrate about. 
Today we had a news conference and talked about some of the things we 
have accomplished. Today America faces a brighter future because of 
what we have done in the first 50 days.
  We have passed the balanced budget amendment, and not only does that 
make sense for us as we live our lives out today, but it also makes 
sense for my children and my grandchildren, who I do not even know yet, 
because they have not been born, but I know that we are not going to 
pass on a debt to them.
  We are going to keep our spending in line. We are on a plan to 
balance the budget by the year 2002.

                              {time}  1900

  It is a good plan, we are holding to it, and we are doing it because 
it is important to the people of America. That is why we face a 
brighter future.
  We are also regaining trust in America, because we have changed 
Congress. We have changed the way we are doing business here in 
Washington.
  On opening day, we required Congress to live under the same laws as 
the rest of America does. We limited committee chairmanships, we 
eliminated proxy voting, we in fact changed the way business is done. 
It is something that has been called for for a long time. And we 
finally accomplished that in the first 50 days.
  We are also now more accountable as a Federal Government than we were 
50 days ago. We passed unfunded mandate reform that makes Congress 
accountable for the actions. When we impose unfunded mandates, we are 
going to try and eliminate that because we know what they will cost now 
and we will understand what we are passing on to local governments.
  I think it is very evident that Congress is listening more now than 
it did 50 days ago. We have a crime package that addresses the real 
true problem. We are not doing midnight basketball, we are not having 
dance lessons for Federal inmates. What we are doing is block grants to 
local communities, because they are the ones that can determine best 
how to spend their money. Do they need new computer systems? Do they 
need new troopers, new cars 
[[Page H2033]]  for troopers? Do they need to pay overtime for their 
current police force? We are giving them the authority and the ability 
to do that because just saying you are going to get 100,000 policemen 
and then not fully funding it does not get 100,000 policemen. Right 
here in DC, in the District of Columbia, they have a problem because 
they are bankrupt according to a GAO report. How can they match with 
Federal funds to get more police on the street? It does not make sense.
  That is why the crime package that was passed by this Congress is 
more sensitive to what the real true needs are in America.
  We are restoring common sense to Washington. It was very evident in 
our National Security Revitalization Act. Right now we have made it 
harder for the President to put U.S. troops under U.N. control. We have 
had terrible instances of abuse,
 where miscommunication has cost the lives of American troops overseas 
and we are going to stop that. We are going to do only our fair share 
of funding with the U.N. Those are important issues that people in the 
Fourth District of Kansas have called out for time and time again.

  Those were the first 50 days, we have accomplished that and more. Now 
we are looking forward to the next 50 days. Welfare reform, regulatory 
and legal reform, our first ever vote on term limits, family tax 
relief, economic growth tax measures. We have a lot to do.
  How are we going to get it done? Well, it is going to require, just 
like out in America, individual support, individual effort, teamwork, 
team support, and also the support of the public.
  As a Member of the freshman class, I have joined with us and we have 
formed a group called the New Federalists. The New Federalists believe 
in limited government. Our goal is to make a smaller, more economical, 
more friendly government for the people of this Nation. We have 
developed four teams and those four teams are in the process of trying 
to eliminate four government agencies. It is not because we dislike 
bureaucrats or we think that there are some things that should just be 
totally eliminated. We are trying to find those parts of government 
which are effective. And we are going to keep those on board. We may 
put them in different compartments, but to remove the duplication and 
bureaucracy is a very important issue and a very important message and 
a very important task.
  The four teams are to eliminate the Department of Education, the 
Department of Commerce, the Department of Housing and Urban 
Development, and the Department of Energy. I am heading up the task 
force to do away with the Department of Energy. We have found out in 
looking through what has been going on through the DOE that it is 
really a gas guzzler.
  They had been first started because we had a problem with 
allocations. The government put allocation and cost controls on our 
private sector. That led to shortages, or in part helped shortages. 
That created a crisis. The typical beltway mentality was to develop a 
bureaucracy to solve this crisis that was actually initiated by a 
bureaucracy. Well, that beltway solution did not work.
  In the early 1980's we eliminated the controls, we eliminated the 
allocation controls, and we in fact removed the crisis. So now it is 
time to turn the lights out on the Department of Energy. In looking at 
the Department of Energy, it has reinvented itself so that it can 
continue as a bureaucracy. Sixty percent of what it does now is a bomb 
factory and should be in the DOD. Only 20 percent is related to energy 
issues. There have been widespread contracting abuses that have been 
uncovered by the GAO. We have one instance in which the security guards 
at a laboratory in New Mexico are being paid overtime while they 
exercise in the gymnasium.
  Now, most people in America think it is important to be fit and a lot 
of them work out in gymnasiums but none of them that I know except for 
these guards get paid overtime to do this. I think this is a travesty 
and those types of abuses need to be uncovered and they need to be 
stopped.
  But once you start a bureaucracy, it is very difficult to get rid of. 
So this task force has seven other Congressmen on it. We are going 
through the different parts of the DOE. We have made assignments, we 
are making assignments to go and uncover the parts of the bureaucracy 
that do not work effectively and eliminate them. We are incorporating 
help from past
 secretaries. We have former Secretary Don Hodel who has been helping 
us. We are joining together with upper classmen in Congress to do away 
with this agency.

  Tbere is a new Congress in town. We have a new voice. The first 50 
days have proved it. We have made this Government more responsive to 
the American people. We have made our workings here on the Hill more 
efficient. We have downsized our staffs and we are doing what I think 
the American people told us.
  In this one respect, we are trading in the gas guzzler of the 
Department of Energy for a more efficient government.

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