[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 97 (Wednesday, June 14, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1242]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                     LEGISLATIVE BRANCH FUNDING BILL

                                 ______


                            HON. RON PACKARD

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                         Tuesday, June 13, 1995
  Mr. PACKARD. Mr. Speaker, last week the Legislative Branch 
Subcommittee, which I chair, slashed $155 million in an unopposed bill. 
And that is just the beginning. If every other Government agency cut 
themselves back like we did, we would be three-quarters down, $133 
billion, the road toward a balanced budget in 1 year--never mind the 
year 2002. We have set the standard and now it's up to the other 
branches of Government to do their part.
  We must make Congress work better and at less cost to the taxpayer. 
To that end, we have defunded certain items, looking toward privatizing 
them, eliminated others which were redundant, reduced those which were 
bloated and recommended innovative ways to move Congress into the 21st 
century. The bill is structured to allow for privatizing many of the 
constituent related services including congressionally flown flags, 
historical calendars, and some mailing operations. We also eliminated 
redundant agencies and services. Among them, the Office of Technology 
Assessment [OTA], the Joint Committee on Printing, one House parking 
lot, funding for the barber and beauty shops and the House restaurants. 
And remaining agencies have all been held at fiscal year 1995 levels or 
have been reduced greatly.
  This bill does what we said we would do last November. We are 
downsizing Government, making it work better for less. I ask that my 
colleagues support this effort.


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