[Congressional Record Volume 149, Number 119 (Wednesday, September 3, 2003)]
[House]
[Page H7792]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                  SETTING PRIORITIES, KEEPING PROMISES

  (Mr. DeLAY asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Mr. DeLAY. Mr. Speaker, between now and adjournment, the House's top-
three priorities will focus squarely on correcting the missed 
opportunities of the recent past. This summer's blackout revealed the 
urgency of one of them. America needs a national policy to meet the 
energy demands of a 21st-century information economy, and it is our job 
to make that policy. House and Senate negotiators are hard at work 
developing a final bill; and when it is done, we will have our first 
comprehensive energy policy in a decade, more than 2 years since the 
House first passed it.
  We are also working with the Senate to complete a Medicare bill that 
includes prescription drugs to finally strengthen and improve health 
care for American seniors.
  This has been a top domestic priority for several years. We have 
already passed prescription drug legislation three times over Democrat 
partisanship, and we are committed to finishing the job this time. And 
finally, this fall we will complete the remainder of the Federal 
spending bills for the coming year.
  We said all along that saving time during the budget process would 
save us money during the spending process, and now we have a chance to 
live up to that promise. Recent Congressional Budget Office projections 
of future deficits should serve as a warning to all of us about the 
need for spending restraint. These deficits are spending-driven 
deficits, and the only way to get the budget back to balance is through 
spending restraint and economic growth. Thanks in part to the tax 
relief the Republican Congress has passed in recent years, the American 
people are starting to revive the national economy, and the best thing 
we can do to help them is to maintain the fiscal discipline laid out in 
the budget proposed by the President and passed by the House. The last 
thing we want is to explode the deficit with new spending like the 
almost-$1 trillion worth proposed by the minority so far this year.
  Mr. Speaker, the Republican majority is committed to maintaining 
spending discipline and keeping the Federal budget on a glide-path to 
balance just as we are committed to completing the American people's 
unfinished business.

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