[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 193 (Monday, December 17, 2007)]
[House]
[Pages H15729-H15735]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                        FISCAL IRRESPONSIBILITY

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under the Speaker's announced policy of 
January 18, 2007, the gentlewoman from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) is 
recognized for 60 minutes as the designee of the minority leader.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the recognition, and I 
appreciate the opportunity to be here this evening to speak with our 
colleagues and certainly to have a conversation with the American 
people about what has transpired on the floor of this House today.
  I know most families are beginning to look toward the Christmas 
season, and they are looking toward a winter holiday and spending time 
with family and with friends. And many of them have worked diligently 
to meet their deadlines to be certain that they have time set aside for 
such an observance.
  Mr. Speaker, I wish I could say that the leadership of the House has 
worked that diligently and is focused on meeting those deadlines so 
that we would all be spending that time with our families. But indeed, 
we have found that is not the case. In unusual moves and through an 
unusual process, we are still at work, because we find that a budget 
has not been passed that should have been done before the 1st of 
September but didn't.
  So, what happens with this the process when you don't get your work 
done, when you don't meet your deadlines, when you disregard what you 
are charged to do and the duty that you are to fulfill? You find that 
you get backed into a corner. And, Mr. Speaker, when that happens, then 
you have to start working your way out of it.
  Well, in the House of Representatives, when we are backed in that 
corner and we are unable to fulfill our work in a timely manner, 
instead of passing our appropriations bills and funding our government 
one bill at a time, we decide we are going to roll it all together, and 
then we have what is called the omnibus. And it is a great big spending 
bill, a great big spending bill, Mr. Speaker, where you throw 
everything into this that your heart could possibly desire. It is 
better than any Santa sack in town.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, I would like to be certain that everyone realizes 
this big bill, this 3,565 pages of bill that weighs 34.4 pounds is 
indeed a Santa's sack loaded with pork and with earmarks, over 9,200 
earmarks.
  In addition to that, Mr. Speaker, I think that it is fair to say that 
this also is a symbol. It is a symbol of the broken process that this 
House has gone through in arriving at a budget. It is a symbol of the 
broken priorities that exist. And, indeed, it is a symbol of the broken 
promises of the leadership of this House to not only the body of the 
House but the American people.
  I have some colleagues joining me tonight to talk a little bit about 
what we find in this 34.4 pounds, 3,565 pages. And, Mr. Speaker, I know 
we are going to talk about energy and the environment. I am saddened to 
know that we have had a lot of trees give their life to print these 
bills this week.
  I would like to recognize the ranking member of the Budget Committee, 
Mr. Ryan of Wisconsin, for some remarks on this legislation.
  Mr. RYAN of Wisconsin. I thank the gentlelady for yielding, and I 
thank her for her leadership on this.
  As we take a look at this bill that just passed the House not 20 
minutes ago, I think it is important to know what is in this piece of 
legislation. This piece of legislation weighs about the same amount of 
weight as my 4-year-old son does. This piece of legislation is 3,565 
pages. It is 9,200-plus earmarks, 300 of which we just found out about 
today.

[[Page H15730]]

  This bill costs $515 billion. This bill does a lot for a lot of 
Federal workers in the holiday season. It makes sure that all those 
Federal workers working at all the different government agencies have 
their budget for the year.
  But what this bill does not do going into this holiday season, it 
does not give those soldiers in Iraq fighting for our freedom on the 
frontline of the war on terror, it does not give them one penny. It 
does not give them 1 minute's worth of comfort so that they have the 
resources, the tools, the body armor, the bullets, the gasoline, the 
rations, the support that they need to keep us safe and to fulfill our 
mission in fighting the war on terror where the epicenter is in Iraq.

                              {time}  2300

  It is a shame that we spend all of this time putting all of this 
money, all of this pork for all of these government agencies, making 
sure that bureaucrats here in Washington are comforted during this 
Christmas season, but not a penny to support our troops in harm's way 
in Iraq. That is a shame.
  What is also a shame is this bill was dropped on the table today and 
passed today. Not a single Member of Congress read this entire bill; 
yet it passed and is on its way to becoming law.
  It is also a shame that it is putting our Nation on a dangerous 
fiscal path. It is the beginning of the week, and we are going to put 
10,000 earmarks into law. At the end of the week, we will pass more 
legislation that will cost billions more. I am worried we may not 
actually patch the AMT because the majority here is insisting on having 
permanent tax increases to pay for that.
  So while we have already seen the delay in Congress is costing people 
a 2-month delay in their refund checks from the IRS, if this Congress 
keeps on the track they are on, they will raise taxes on millions of 
Americans and businesses just to try to provide for a temporary 
prevention of a tax increase on 19 million additional taxpayers, 19 
million taxpayers who already, because of this delay, will see a delay 
in their refunds.
  Mr. Speaker, this is not a good moment for the fiscal policy of our 
country. This is not a proud day for the House of Representatives to 
thump a 34-pound, 3,565-page bill on the desk and vote it out. But 
worst of all, it is not a good day for our soldiers, sailors, airmen 
and marines who are in the fight, who are on the front lines, who want 
our support, who deserve our support. That should have been taken care 
of before any single Member of Congress got their pork. Unfortunately, 
it wasn't, and that is what passed the House here this evening.
  I see we are joined by several other colleagues who want to make 
comments on this. We have leaders here in the House of Representatives 
on fiscal conservatism, on fiscal responsibility, and I thank the 
gentlewoman who is controlling the time and thank her for her tireless 
leadership.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentleman from Wisconsin for coming and 
speaking. We are members of the Republican Study Committee. If you want 
to find out a little more about what is in this bill, you can go to our 
Web site, which is House.gov/hensarling/RSC, and find out a little bit 
about the details in this bill.
  As the gentleman from Wisconsin pointed out, this is serious 
business. We are responsible for the budget process of the House. The 
House holds the purse strings for the Federal Government; and it is a 
duty that we, many of us, take very, very seriously.
  Mr. Speaker, it is of tremendous concern to us when a bill is filed 
at 12:30 a.m., the dark of night, this bill gets filed and within 24 
hours this 3,565-page bill is voted out. And as the gentleman said, 
there is no funding for our troops on the ground in Iraq who have been 
making steady, consistent progress. What a disservice to the troops and 
to the American people.
  I want to recognize the gentleman from Texas (Mr. Hensarling), who is 
chairman of the Republican Study Committee. His Web site, House.gov/
hensarling/RSC, that is where you can get a copy of what is in this 
bill; the $515 billion that is contained in here, plus you can find out 
where some of those gimmicks, budget gimmicks are; plus, you can take a 
look at some of the emergency/nonemergency spending that is also in 
here just so that the majority can spend a little bit more money.
  But I would like to yield to the gentleman from Texas who chairs the 
Republican Study Committee, Mr. Hensarling.
  Mr. HENSARLING. I thank the gentlewoman for yielding. And, again, I 
thank her for her leadership in this institution, a very clear, 
concise, conservative voice on this House floor, particularly when it 
comes to trying to save the family budget from the onslaught of the 
Federal budget.
  As my colleague from Tennessee has pointed out, the House is 
completely broken. It is completely broken and felled under this new 
Democratic leadership. They said they would do better if they were in 
charge. So what do they bring us today? Today they bring us a 3,565-
page spending bill which people have been able to see beside my 
colleague's speaking position over here, weighing in at 34.4 pounds, 
roughly the weight of my 5-year-old daughter.
  It spends $515 billion of the people's money, and the Democrat 
majority brought it to the floor tonight and devoted less than 1 hour 
of floor time debating this omnibus bill. This body spent about a 
minute debating every $9.1 billion being spent in this bill.
  Now, that is money if left in the hands of the families of America 
and the small businesses of America, who make the jobs and have to work 
hard to send their kids to college and put food on the table and put 
roofs over their heads, that money is coming from them; and we spent 
less than a minute debating $9 billion. The minutes went by, and all of 
a sudden this House passed a $515 billion bill.
  Now, Mr. Speaker, when the Republicans were in charge, unfortunately, 
my party occasionally brought an omnibus bill to the floor, and I 
personally voted against each and every one because I don't believe 
that was the vision of the Founding Fathers. It is not the way we 
should run this government. In fact, I was at a town hall meeting in my 
district not too long ago and a gentleman from the Athens, Texas, in 
the 5th Congressional District of Texas, said: Don't you think we would 
have a much better government if Members of Congress were actually 
required to read the legislation before they vote on it?
  What human being can read 34.4 pounds, 3,565 pages in one day? That 
is right, Mr. Speaker, this bill was just given to us today. In the 
early morning hours, this bill was laid upon this institution.
  So there is no transparency here. It is interesting to me that when 
the majority party was in the minority, they screamed to the rafters 
about this process. Listen to what Speaker Pelosi, then minority Pelosi 
had to say about this process: ``The Republican leadership forced 
through a so-called `martial law' rule that required a same-day vote 
preventing Members of Congress from having enough time to read 
legislation. They spent hundreds of billions of dollars and it was 
thousands of pages long. This arrogance of power is part of a pattern 
of abuse.''
  Now that is what Speaker Pelosi said 3 years ago when she was in the 
minority. Now that she is the Speaker, does this mean she is imposing 
martial law on this House with this process that she decried 3 years 
ago? Is she now bringing a spirit of arrogance to this institution 
which she decried 3 years ago? Is she part of the pattern of abuse that 
she decried 3 years by forcing Members of this institution to vote on 
this monstrosity?
  So on process alone, this bill ought to be rejected. But it really 
ought to be rejected because it puts us on a path of extreme fiscal 
irresponsibility. Already today this government is on automatic pilot 
to force the largest single tax increase in American history on working 
families all across America. It was included in the Democrat budget. 
More spending fosters more taxes. And that's just the start, Mr. 
Speaker, because after imposing the single largest tax increase in 
American history in the Democrat budget, with their so-called ``mother 
of all tax increases,'' they are going to once again make history by 
imposing the single largest tax increase in American history yet again, 
perhaps twice in a 12-month period. I am sure that will break some kind 
of record here in the House of Representatives.

[[Page H15731]]

  But don't take my word for it. Listen to the head of the 
Congressional Budget Office, the head of the Government Accountability 
Office, the Federal Reserve chairman. They are all going to tell you 
the same thing, Mr. Speaker, and that is without changing the spending 
patterns of the Federal Government of which this omnibus represents 
some of the worst, we are on automatic pilot to double taxes on the 
next generation. Double. And the average American family pays roughly 
$22,000 a year in taxes. That will go to $44,000. How many American 
dreams are going to be squashed by a tax burden of that magnitude, 
represented by that 34.4 pound omnibus spending legislation which will 
flatten the American taxpayer like a bus.
  It is full of gimmicks from people who said they were going to bring 
the most honest and ethical Congress in the history of mankind to this 
institution. They take a rubber stamp and they stamp ``emergency 
spending'' on anything that moves because they have this little clever 
device that allows them to avoid any kind of budget discipline when 
they do that. They have this gimmick called ``advanced appropriations'' 
that would make an Enron accountant blush, but they use it to once 
again evade any spending discipline whatsoever in this institution.
  They said they would clean up earmarks and this is chock full of 
earmarks. Mr. Speaker, if you look closely, maybe some of these 
earmarks pass the legal test. Maybe they even pass some ethical test, 
but all too often the American people are seeing campaign cash going 
into the institution on this end, and they are seeing earmarks coming 
out the other end. It doesn't meet the fiscal responsibility test, and 
it doesn't meet the American taxpayer smell test. And that bill is 
chock full of it. Out of 3,565 pages, 692 pages are devoted to 
individual congressional earmarks, which many of the American people 
believe serve no other purposes other than to get Members of Congress 
reelected.
  Again, the Democrat majority said they would clean it up and there 
would be transparency and accountability. We haven't even had time to 
read the 692 pages. We don't know what is in there. Maybe there is 
another museum to a Member of Congress, as the chairman of the Ways and 
Means Committee managed to earmark $2 million to create a museum to 
himself.
  One final point before turning this over to some of my other able 
colleagues from the Republican Study Committee. I want to harken back 
to a point made by the gentleman from Wisconsin (Mr. Ryan), ranking 
member of the Budget Committee. Earlier tonight the Democrat majority 
leader came to the floor and said, We have a responsibility to fund our 
government.
  Well, I don't know everything that is in that bill, Mr. Speaker, but 
I know something that isn't in that bill. There is no funding for the 
men and women fighting for freedom in Iraq. Not one penny. Now how do 
you have a bill that ostensibly funds the United States Government and 
somehow you leave out the men and women who wear our Nation's uniform? 
They wear our Nation's uniform. They come from the small towns and 
factories and fields from all over America. Their paychecks come from 
the same United States Treasury that Members of Congress' do. Somehow 
the Democrat majority managed to put into their 34-pound bill thousands 
of earmarks. They managed to fund every single bureaucrat at the 
Commerce Department, but they can't find one penny for our brave men 
and women fighting on the front lines of freedom in Iraq.
  Mr. Speaker, maybe they don't believe in the cause, but don't they 
believe in the soldiers, sailors, airmen and marines?

                              {time}  2315

  There is no way that any Member with any credibility can come to this 
floor and say we are presenting a bill to fund the Federal Government 
but, oh, we don't really consider members of our armed services 
fighting in Iraq to be members of our government. I just don't know 
what planet some of these people come from, Mr. Speaker, and that's 
just shameful. It is a shameful moment this year in the history of the 
House to present this spending abomination, chock full of earmarks that 
ignore our men and women in harm's way in Iraq. And it's one of the 
lowest points of this entire year for this Democrat Congress. And I 
hope that the American people are paying very special attention to what 
is going on here tonight.
  I appreciate the gentlelady, again, for her leadership for taking the 
time to help elaborate on really this heinous piece of legislation that 
came to the floor earlier, and I want to thank her. And I want to thank 
all the members of the House Conservative Caucus, the Republican Study 
Committee, the largest caucus in the House, for always being ready and 
vigilant to fight for freedom and to work for less government and more 
freedom and more opportunity, and that's what the Republican Study 
Committee is all about. And I appreciate the opportunity to share in 
this Special Order, and I yield back to the gentlelady from Tennessee.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentleman from Texas. And again, Mr. 
Speaker, if someone would like to pull down the summary and get the 
information on this bill, house.gov/Hensarling, H-E-N-S-A-R-L-I-N-G, /
RSC, and they can pull down our summary here. H.R. 2764 is the omnibus. 
Not a minibus. It is a great big omnibus, all 3,565 pages, and they can 
see for themselves a little bit about what is contained in here and 
what is not contained.
  And as the gentleman from Texas said, the fact that we are a Nation 
at war and we have men and women in the field in Iraq who are fighting 
for our freedom, fighting for our ability to be here and to serve in 
the U.S. House of Representatives, fighting for our security so that we 
can safely and peacefully celebrate Christmas and the holiday season, 
and we do not honor their service by funding that work. It is a serious 
error. It is a serious omission.
  At this time, I would like to yield to the gentleman from Arizona 
(Mr. Shadegg), who has been chairman of the RSC in times past. He 
serves on the Energy and Commerce Committee. He is one of the leading 
fiscal conservatives in this body, and I yield to him for his comments 
on the omnibus.
  Mr. SHADEGG. I thank the gentlelady from Tennessee for yielding, and 
I want to commend her for her work. You know, there is a story here 
tonight. There's a story the Nation needs to know. There's a story of 
an institution charged with protecting this Nation and carrying out the 
responsibilities of this government, and it is a story of shame. It is 
a story of failure. It is a story of an institution that's supposed to 
be doing its job and isn't.
  And I commend the gentlelady from Tennessee (Mrs. Blackburn) for her 
efforts to bring that story forward, to point out the 3,565-page bill 
that was laid on us less than 20 hours ago when we were given less than 
20 hours to pass it.
  But the real story here, I would suggest, is a story that some of my 
colleagues have already commented on, and that is the story of 9,200 
earmarks in this bill. Now, I suppose if you're an average American 
you're sitting back at home and you flip through the TV channel and you 
catch C-SPAN and you know generally what an earmark is. But let me tell 
you what it is. An earmark is an effort by a Member of Congress to name 
some little project that will somehow benefit, or they can make an 
argument that it will benefit, them or their constituents in some way, 
and yet, sadly, when you examine those earmarks, you find one thing is 
true. Every single one of them is self-serving, designed to get that 
Member of Congress re-elected, and every single one of them is put in 
there with huge effort.
  Now, in this bill, we have 9,200 individual Member projects, 
earmarks, if you will, inserted in the bill. You heard my colleague, 
Mr. Ryan from Wisconsin, point out that 300 of those Member projects or 
earmarks were dropped in this bill just last night. That is to say, 
they've never been seen before.
  Now, my colleague from Texas, Mr. Hensarling, pointed out that none 
of us could do what I was asked to do when I ran in 1994. When I ran 
for the United States Congress in 1994, my constituents said to me, 
Congressman, we want you to go back there and promise us you'll never 
vote for a bill that you haven't read. Ladies and gentlemen, no one can 
read a 3,565-page bill in 20 hours. It can't done be done.

[[Page H15732]]

  I had a conservation with a constituent this weekend when I was home, 
and he said to me, because I was complaining to him about earmarks, 
about misspending, he said, Well, I thought that the Democrats cleaned 
that up. I thought that practice ended. I thought they'd ended that. I 
thought the reforms had changed that.
  Well, the gentlelady from Tennessee and the gentleman from Texas and 
my colleague from Wisconsin have pointed out the story of the night. 
The story of the night is all the talk about reform was just that; it 
was talk. Reform has not happened. If the American people believe that 
they elected a new majority to this Congress to end wasteful spending, 
it didn't happen. If they believe they elected a new majority to 
Congress to get things done in regular order so we could review the 
bills and read them before they were voted on, it did not happen. If 
the people across America believe they elected a new majority, and that 
new majority reformed the rules to end earmark abuse, it didn't happen, 
because those earmarks are here.
  Hillary Clinton's hippie museum, it's here. And God knows what else 
is in this bill, because the 3,565 pages which sit right there cannot 
possibly have been combed by all of us in this time.
  What you have heard is that while Congress could find time to put in 
9,200 earmarks in this bill, and combined with prior bills, take the 
total earmarks for the year to 10,300, roughly, roughly $17.6 billion 
in Member projects and earmarks, we could find the time to do that. All 
the Members of Congress could, you know, write out their list requests 
and say, I need this project and I need that project and I need this 
project, and Hillary Clinton needs a hippie museum, and God knows what 
else is in this bill. But we couldn't find time, as my colleagues from 
Texas and Tennessee and Wisconsin have pointed out to you, we couldn't 
find time to put money in there for our soldiers in Iraq.
  Oh, we could find time to renovate the U.N.'s headquarters in New 
York. We could find time to essentially overturn the Secure Fence Act 
by making it almost impossible to build that fence. We could find time 
to craft 692 pages of individual Member requests, little requests, fund 
this so that I look good and I get re-elected. We could find time for 
that. We could find time for 9,200 of those.
  We could air-drop, that's right, you heard, air-drop earmarks. What 
does that term mean? Well, an air-drop earmark is an earmark that is 
inserted in a bill after it has left both the House and the Senate. How 
many of those are there in this bill that nobody's ever seen, perhaps, 
but the author of the bill? There are 300 of those. So we could find 
time for 9,200 earmarks, 300 of them air-dropped, never seen before. No 
American, no average American back home has had any chance to review 
them. We could find time for that, but we could not find time to fund 
the war in Iraq.

  I commend the gentlelady for bringing these facts forward. I think it 
is a story that America needs to know. They need to know that this 
Congress, as the gentlelady from Tennessee pointed out, was supposed to 
do this work clear back last August, last September, and be done with 
it. But they couldn't find time to do it until now, almost Christmas 
Eve. But by gosh, they could find time for their earmarks, their pet 
projects. But no time for the Nation's defense.
  I commend the gentlelady from Tennessee. I appreciate her yielding me 
time. I think this is a story the American people know about, need to 
know about, and I think it's worth saying here one more time. My friend 
Tom Cole from Oklahoma said, ``Earmarks are a gateway drug to higher 
spending. I suggest this bill proves that to be true. Once again, 
earmarks pave the way for higher spending. And as my colleague from 
Texas pointed out, that means higher taxes, less money in the 
pocketbooks and wallets of the American people, more money in the hands 
of the government to, frankly, misspend in ways to try to get 
themselves re-elected. I think it's an important story. I think it's a 
sad day, and I commend the gentlelady for asking the time, late at 
night to take her time and to work hard to make sure that some 
Americans know the abuse that's going on, the outrages, the hundreds of 
thousands of earmarks and the hundreds of thousands of air-dropped 
earmarks, special projects nobody has ever seen that are put into this 
bill. And I commend you for the job you're doing.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. I thank the gentleman and I thank him for his 
comments on this.
  Mr. Speaker, I think that it is just one of these occurrences that 
has happened tonight that you just find almost inconceivable, that the 
majority could have filed a 3,565-page bill in the middle of the night 
and then bring everybody back to Washington and vote it.
  Now, as the gentleman from Arizona said, the fiscal year started 
September 1. This is something that should have been done last summer. 
But, instead, they wait until Christmas week. They file this bill in 
the middle of the night. They don't give people time to read it. And 
then, as we do begin to read it, we find what we thought at first was 
going to be about 7,000 earmarks, read a little more, the number is 
growing to 8,000. Then, Mr. Speaker, lo and behold, we get up to 9,000. 
Then it goes to over 9,200. We find that 300 of those earmarks had not 
been discussed by anybody. They just appeared out of thin air, like 
magic. They just appeared and got written in to this bill that passed 
the House tonight.
  That is not fiscal responsibility. That, Mr. Speaker, is what you 
call fiscal irresponsibility. It is the symbol of a broken process, 
with broken priorities, and it is broken promises. That is something 
that is very troubling to us as we are here this Christmas week hard at 
work defending the American taxpayer. And the American taxpayer has no 
better individual standing to defend them than the gentleman from 
Georgia. Mr. Westmoreland has worked with and chairs the Floor Action 
Team for us in the minority and does a wonderful job in that capacity. 
He is an active member and a part of the leadership of the Republican 
Study Committee. And I yield to him for his comments on the 
legislation.
  Mr. WESTMORELAND. I want to thank the lady from Tennessee for her 
leadership in this and for her taking this late hour to come and be 
part of a group, the Republican Study Committee, that believes in 
fiscal conservatism, and are willing to stand up and fight, to be 
called names in this body. In fact, I think the lady and myself and 
others that have spoken here tonight have been called the fringe 
because we stand up and want to debate these issues and want to bring 
the truth to the American people. And to the lady from Tennessee, I 
just, you know, I think that we need to clarify to the people and let 
them understand what kind of position, not only us, but this whole 
House was put in today because less than 24 hours ago, at about 12:30 
this morning, this bill, over 3,500 pages was filed.

                              {time}  2330

  Now, I don't know about the rest of you, and I'm sure the gentlelady 
from Tennessee, but I was in the bed then, sound asleep, as I'm sure 
most people were. I got up this morning and got dressed and got on a 
plane and came to D.C., but the first time this bill was debated and 
just the rule on this bill was about 5:30 tonight.
  So put yourself in this position. Your financial officer for your 
company comes in and hands you a bill like this and says could you look 
at this and let me know if this is okay to finance this company for the 
rest of the year, and I need to know by about 8 o'clock tonight. Now, I 
think it would be impossible for them to do it. I think it would be 
impossible for any of us to do that.
  It's been impossible for us to take 3,500 pages, something that 
weighs over 34 pounds, and try to consolidate that into information 
that we can base a vote on. It's impossible.
  Talking about $515 billion. Now, when I was in the Georgia 
legislature, our State budget for 9 million people was a little over 
$16 billion, and I thought I realized how much $1 billion was but it 
was not until a friend of mine, Naomi Morgan, sent me an e-mail today, 
in fact, and pointed out several things to me.
  One billion, if 1 billion were seconds and we went back 1 billion 
seconds, we would be in 1959. 1959 is 1 billion seconds from right now. 
And when you're talking about that, we just got through

[[Page H15733]]

passing a $515 billion bill in less than 24 hours, that's scary, isn't 
it? And.
  The other thing is 1 billion minutes, if we went back 1 billion 
minutes from now, Jesus would be walking the earth. Jesus would be 
walking the earth 1 billion minutes ago.
  Sometimes we lose perspective. We've been up here too long when we 
just throw around the word ``billion,'' but we were asked today to vote 
in less than 24 hours on a 3,500 page bill, weighs over 35 pounds, and 
contained $515 billion worth of spending.
  You know, that shows me that the process is broken, and when the 
process is broken, the product is flawed. This process has been broken.
  Now, we were lied to or misled. I'd hate to think that they purposely 
lied, but I think they misled us and the American people, the majority 
party, on the first day when they talked about a new open process, a 
new bipartisan spirit. See, I represent about 700,000 people, as every 
Member in this body does, and those 700,000 people want to have some 
type of input into the situation, and you know, unfortunately, I've not 
had any input in this bill. There has not been any amendments to be 
allowed.
  We could not look at all the 9,000 or so earmarks in this bill to see 
if they were justified, but I do want to tell the American people, 
because one of the things other than spending too much of their money 
has been illegal immigration. Now, that is a high topic, and I want the 
American people, and I think this is very important because every town 
hall meeting I have and I don't know about you, every town hall meeting 
I have, every teleconference I have, the hottest topic that we have is 
illegal immigration. Now, this should really at least let the public 
know the priorities that the majority party has.
  $10 million in this bill in that 3,500-page bill over there, $10 
million of it went for emergency spending for defense attorneys for 
illegal immigrants. $10 million of that bill goes for defense attorneys 
in emergency spending for illegal immigrants; yet we did not fund our 
troops in Iraq one dime.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. I think that this is such an important part of this 
bill because we have talked a good bit about our troops in Iraq not 
being funded in this bill, and then when we talk about the gimmickry, 
and just I hate to even use the term. It's almost like a sleight of 
hand.
  Mr. WESTMORELAND. Smoke and mirrors.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Smoke and mirrors, it is indeed, where they come in 
and they're going to make it very difficult to build the fence.
  You know, they have $2.7 billion for border security funds in the 
homeland security accounts, and then they have another $225 million for 
GSA related to the border fence. Then they turn around and there is 
$10.5 million for defender services for illegal immigrants. And we know 
that what they've done is to go in and make it very, very difficult.
  The bill releases $650 million of this funding for the border fence 
only after, and that is where they're setting up roadblock, only after 
the Appropriations Committee is satisfied with the Department of 
Homeland Security's expenditure plan and that 15 conditions listed in 
the bill are met.
  Now, as the gentleman knows, every time we do a town hall meeting 
people are so concerned about the loss of this Nation's sovereignty, 
about the loss of security in our communities. Because the illegal 
immigration issue is not addressed, every State's a border State, and 
every town is a border town, and now we see that they're playing 
tricks. They're going to say, well, we're going to go under emergency 
money and we're going to put it in here that it could be released if we 
decided it was an emergency, and oh, by the way, we're going to release 
part of it only after the Appropriations Committee is satisfied.
  Well, what's satisfied one person's requirements may not satisfy 
another because it is subjective, and that will be released at that 
time. And then you have got 15 conditions. Well, you can make it 
impossible to ever satisfy a list of conditions, Mr. Speaker, if your 
goal is to block something. If your plan is to fail, you can develop a 
plan to fail, and that is what we see in this 3,565 pages of a budget 
document is how to fail.
  And I yield back to the gentleman.
  Mr. WESTMORELAND. I was going to say, and trust me, what you were 
just talking about as far as meeting these requirements, trust me, this 
$10.5 million that we're spending on these defense attorneys for these 
illegal immigrants, trust me, they're going to law you up and keep us 
from building that fence.
  And you know, now when my constituents say, Congressman, why aren't 
we building that fence, why aren't we securing the border, then I've 
got something I can tell them now. I can give them that 3,500-page 
bill, of course there's no telling what it would cost them to get a 
copy of that, 35 pounds of paper there, and say it's in this bill that 
we will build the fence but only under certain conditions.
  And I think the gentlelady from Tennessee, or anybody that's had a 
town hall meeting, would agree that these people do not care about the 
conditions. The only conditions they want is they want a fence. They 
want a border. They want a secure country because no country without 
secure borders is secure.
  And so that's what the American people want, not stumbling blocks and 
not something big enough to hide $10.5 million in for defense attorneys 
in emergency spending. Now, this is emergency spending for the illegal 
immigrants. We've got some true emergencies, but it's not in defending 
them. It's in allowing them to come here.
  So I just hope that the American people, that tonight somehow that we 
have made a difference or maybe had at least some eye opening with some 
of the information that we've given them about this bill over here that 
we were asked to vote on today, and I hope that they will understand 
that this is not an easy process.

  But the process is broken, and I will be honest with you, it was 
broken when we were in charge, but it's lost another wheel. We may have 
only been one wheel short when we were in charge, but trust me, both 
axles are broken right now, and it's just being drug along the ground. 
It is broken. The product is flawed.
  We need to start over. I would hope that the President would veto 
this bill. I would hope that he would veto this bill and get us back to 
the table so we can take some of these things back out, save the 
taxpayers some money.
  But I do appreciate, again, the leadership of the gentlelady from 
Tennessee and her willingness to come here this late at night and try 
to explain some of this to the American people so that they can have a 
better understanding of some of the challenges that we're faced with 
and some of the opportunities that the majority party is taking with 
smoke-and-mirror bills like we passed today.
  So I want to thank the gentlelady.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman from Georgia, and 
you know, I think it is so important that, once again, I remind 
individuals at house.gov/hensarling/rsc you can get a little bit of a 
summary of the bill.
  Of course, you know, it's one of these things where, Mr. Speaker, we 
have had it for only a very short period of time because it was less 
than 24 hours ago that it was even put up on-line for Members to be 
certain that they had the chance to look at it. I was one of those 
Members up. I was at home working away, trying to get things finished 
to get some of my Christmas cooking done and my Christmas ironing done 
and ready for the holiday season with my family. And I will tell you, 
it is of such concern to me that we see the manner in which this has 
been constructed and pulled together.
  I do hope that the American people will sit down and look through 
some of this and see where this money is going. My goodness, when you 
see $11 billion for emergency designated spending and then you see that 
the budget's criteria for emergency spending is sudden, unforeseen, 
temporary, urgent, et cetera, and that is where you see some of the 
gimmickry begin to come in.
  Of course, these are things that we all agree with. There's money for 
drought relief, which that's been very difficult, but $20 million for 
farm service agency salaries and expenses, that should have been 
something that was anticipated.
  Eight million dollars for Department of Justice administrative review 
and

[[Page H15734]]

appeals; $10 million for legal activities, salaries and expense; $7 
million for U.S. attorneys, salaries and expenses; $15 million for U.S. 
marshals, services, salaries and expenses; $143.5 million for FBI 
salaries and expenses; $2 million for Drug Enforcement Agency, salaries 
and expenses; $14.5 million for Court of Appeals, salaries and 
expenses. Mr. Speaker, salaries and expenses should be something that 
was anticipated. I'm not certain that meets the criteria of emergency. 
Emergency should be something that is unforeseen, that we didn't know 
was going to happen. Now, if we have people on our payroll and we do 
expect them to get a paycheck, then that salary and the related 
expenses and benefits are something that we should be planning for.
  Then there's the $10.5 million that the gentleman from Georgia and I 
have discussed where you set aside the money for illegal immigrants to 
be able to have attorneys to defend them. And then there's the ruse of 
the border fence with the money that's being appropriated but then you 
can't get to it.
  There's $300 million for wildfire suppression and $195 million for 
the Minnesota bridge accident, which occurred many months ago.

                              {time}  2345

  And here is $100 million for Presidential security at political 
conventions.
  Mr. Speaker, it may be a news flash. This may be totally new to many 
people, but we have a political convention every 4 years. This is 
something we should be planning for. It should not be an emergency 
expense that we are going to have to have Presidential security at the 
political conventions. Cities go to great lengths to bid to get these 
conventions, to be able to hold them. We know that every 4 years we are 
going to have a Presidential election. This is something that is 
anticipated. It is not an emergency that is unexpected.
  Mr. WESTMORELAND. Will the gentlewoman yield?
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. I will gladly yield.
  Mr. WESTMORELAND. You just told me something new when you were 
reading out those salaries in there under emergency spending. So we are 
paying district attorneys and judges and other people these salaries in 
emergency spending, but yet we are not funding our troops in Iraq. Is 
that what you're telling me?
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Reclaiming my time, that is what we have found. That 
is all a part of the emergency spending component. That's why I think 
it's so interesting when you go through and read the summary on this 
bill because you find that in order to carry out the ability to spend a 
little more on programs where they want to spend more, what they have 
done is to shift the cost. And so if you can put it under emergency 
spending and then not have to submit it to the PAYGO rules, then it 
allows you to be able to spend a little bit more.
  Mr. WESTMORELAND. So this is more smoke and mirrors, is what you're 
saying?
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. It is more of the smoke and mirrors, and I am sure it 
was concocted in a smokefilled room. But it just doesn't make good 
sense, and it's just not common sense in the way it ought to be done 
when you look at your different allocations and your different lines. 
And certainly there are many people listening to this who sit on county 
commissions and city councils and they are in State legislatures and 
they are listening to this and they are pulling down this budget 
document and they are saying, We could never get away with something 
like this.
  Mr. WESTMORELAND. The funny thing is if we had corporate officers 
that were running their companies like that, we would have them in 
front of the Government Reform Committee and having a hearing on them. 
It's embarrassing that we are running our government the way we are 
running it, and yet we are having hearings about these corporate 
officers that are doing things in the dark of night and in smoke and 
mirror, phony documents that they're doing.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. Yes. Reclaiming my time, the next segment that I have 
here is after the emergency spending, which I was reading through, then 
we get into the budget gimmicks, and you see how they have pulled in 
$10.2 billion in gimmicks that are being used to artificially lower the 
cost of the bill. And it goes through this with some transportation 
funds; the crime victims fund; advanced appropriations, which sounds 
just a little bit sneaky there. It increases some funding for the BRAC 
account, and there's a way that's kind of shifted and moved around.
  And then following that we get into each of the individual 
Departments, each of the appropriations bills, with the Agriculture 
bill, Commerce-Justice-Science, Energy and Water. We go through each of 
these and list where some of the provisions are and some of the 
increases. There is an increase in here for salaries and expenses at 
the Food and Drug Administration from $1.57 billion to $172 billion. An 
increase for conservation programs. The Legal Services Corporation, the 
LSC, it gives $350 million for them, $1 million over the fiscal year 
2007.
  Now, the Legal Services Corporation is free legal aid. They represent 
individuals that sue the government. So we are going to increase their 
funding, but we are not going to fund our troops, and we are not going 
to get that fence built and secure that border. So in here is increased 
funding for energy efficiency and renewable energy programs from $1.47 
billion to $1.72 billion.
  Mr. WESTMORELAND. Fuzzy math.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. And there again you see that we are increasing that. 
We are increasing the Department of the Interior programs, but we are 
not funding our troops. We see increased funding for the IRS. They are 
going from $10.60 billion to $10.89 billion, and it is an increase of 
$295.3 million or 2.8 percent over their fiscal year 2007 numbers. So 
we are going to increase money for the IRS, but we are not going to get 
that money to our troops.
  Mr. WESTMORELAND. Will the gentlewoman yield?
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. I will gladly yield.
  Mr. WESTMORELAND. I don't know how your constituents are going to 
feel about that, but when I go home and tell my constituents that we 
increased the IRS spending more than the normal 4 percent, or whatever 
it is, we have increased it double, and yet we didn't want to give any 
money to our troops in Iraq, they're going to be kind of mad about 
that. But then when I tell them they put up roadblocks about building 
the fence and we didn't fund our troops in Iraq, they're going to be 
upset about that. And then when I tell them about the $10 million in 
emergency spending for defense attorneys, I think they are really going 
to be mad about that.
  I hope the American people get a good grip on this.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. When I go back and say they were going to increase 
funding to the IRS and it would be $10.89 billion, my constituents are 
going to say that's why you need to get rid of the IRS, and that's why 
we need to have a fair tax.
  Mr. WESTMORELAND. Absolutely.
  Mrs. BLACKBURN. And that is what we will hear from our constituents.
  And the list goes on and on, as you can see. I have got plenty of 
pages that we could flip through. We even have title X and family 
planning money that is increased by $300 million. And I find it so very 
interesting that they go in and they increase the title X and the 
Family Planning money, but guess what? What they didn't do was to 
increase the money for the abstinence education program. Now, how about 
that, Mr. Speaker? That funding was held level. It was held level. And 
Family Planning and Planned Parenthood will get big increases, but 
abstinence education will not.
  Well, Mr. Speaker, as I have said several times tonight, budgets are 
about priorities. Budget documents tell you where you want your 
emphasis to be. And what we see from this majority is a budget process 
that is broken, with priorities that are broken, and promises that are 
broken. And we have a 3,565-page bill that weighs 34.4 pounds when you 
print it out. It contains over 9,200 earmarks. There are lots of pet 
projects, lots of pork in this big Santa sack. What is missing is 
funding for the troops on the ground in Iraq.
  I find it very sad, very sad indeed, that it is the men and women who 
defend this great Nation who are left out in the cold this 
Christmastime. They are the ones that should be at the very

[[Page H15735]]

top of the list, Mr. Speaker. We should think of them first. We should 
honor them in the way that we do our jobs. We are a Nation at war. We 
know that. That is something I think most people in this body agree 
with. And we pass a budget that does not include them and does not 
include the funding to meet their needs.
  Mr. Speaker, you and I would not be able to stand in this Chamber and 
have this debate if it were not for the men and women of the U.S. 
military. We should honor them. They should have been Title I, Page 1. 
And instead they are nowhere to be found in 3,565 pages. That is a 
serious oversight.
  And, once again, we can talk about all the other things. We can talk 
about the illegal immigrants being able to get funding for attorneys. 
We can talk about roadblocks to having the borders secured, things that 
are purposely placed there; but the most egregious oversight is the 
fact that it does not fund our troops.
  As I close, I will say God bless those troops. God bless their 
families. And, Mr. Speaker, my prayer is that this House will reverse 
itself and will put them first in this budget document.

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