[Congressional Record Volume 152, Number 48 (Thursday, April 27, 2006)]
[House]
[Page H1895]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       FEDERAL SUNSET COMMISSION

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Brady) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BRADY of Texas. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the 
Constitutional Caucus headed by Mr. Bishop and Mr. Garrett, who are 
determined to make sure that government in Washington and in this 
country is limited to the constitutional role. I appreciate their 
leadership, because that is too often forgotten in this Chamber. One of 
the pieces of legislation that helps underscore that need is 
legislation to create a Federal Sunset Commission, legislation I 
authored 10 years ago.
  I have watched and worked in the State legislature in Texas to 
promote, and here is the benefits of it. What this does is this 
Commission seeks to abolish obsolete agencies and eliminate duplication 
by putting an expiration date on every agency and program where they 
must justify their existence to taxpayers or face elimination.
  What it does, in practice, is eliminate agencies that duplicate each 
other. And the last study showed that Federal programs, on average, 
duplicate five others. So we are wasting money terribly.
  As President Ronald Reagan said, the closest thing to immortality on 
this Earth is a Federal program. Our goal is to end immortality, make 
sure that Federal agencies are responsive to taxpayers and they need 
our precious tax dollars today; not what they were created for 100 
years ago or 80 years ago, but do they deserve our tax dollars today?
  The fact of the matter is there is so much duplication, there is so 
much waste in this government, and we have 500-and-some different urban 
aid programs, 350 different economic development programs, more than 
100 different job training programs, the war on drugs, multiple 
programs over about 17 different agencies.
  It is a terrible waste of tax dollars, and in this day and age when 
we are fighting a war against terrorism, when we have major deficits, 
we cannot afford this type of wasteful government.
  Our Constitution requires us to trim the Federal Government. In fact, 
Thomas Jefferson, our third President, wrote a letter to a friend at 
that time in his Presidency lamenting the fact that he was having 
trouble cutting back agencies that had outlived their usefulness.
  So the fight that we have is an historical fight. We have actually 
brought this bill up to a vote before in the House. It passed with 272 
votes. It did not move further than that. But I am convinced that by 
assigning agencies, there will be no sacred cows, every agency has to 
justify their existence.
  In Texas we have eliminated 44 State agencies, saved over $1 billion. 
I am convinced here at the Federal level, done right in a bipartisan 
way with real commitment, we can save tax dollars. We can make Federal 
programs accountable to taxpayers and save dollars.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, I yield back, again with thanks to Mr. Bishop 
and Mr. Garrett for leading this caucus at such a key time in our 
Nation's history.

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