[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 18 (Tuesday, January 30, 2007)]
[House]
[Page H993]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       THE DEATH OF DELIBERATION

  (Mr. PENCE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. PENCE. Madam Speaker, I must admit that I was somewhat encouraged 
in December when the newly minted Democrat majority announced that they 
were considering a bill that would simply finish this year's budget 
work with what is known as a continuing resolution, funding the 
government at current levels and leaving the debate over the budget for 
the ordinary process of the constitutional system of the legislature. I 
was particularly enamored with the idea that they would move this so-
named continuing resolution without earmarks, and I am pleased to have 
supported bipartisan earmark reform.
  But what will come to the floor tomorrow, to my disappointment, is 
not a bill that simply continues the funding of the government. It is a 
new Federal budget: $463 billion in spending, 137 pages. Madam Speaker, 
it will take 300 pages to read the CBO score. What we see is not a 
continuation of government spending. We see, rather, the death of 
deliberation. The Congress is witnessing in the first hours of this new 
session the death of a long-term process whereby our budgets and our 
legislation are considered. It is the death of deliberation that must 
be put to an end.

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