[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 146 (2000), Part 12]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 16944]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]



        TREASURY AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2001

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                               speech of

                           HON. DENNIS MOORE

                               of kansas

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 20, 2000

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 4871) making 
     appropriations for the Treasury Department, the United States 
     Postal Service, the Executive Office of the President, and 
     certain Independent Agencies, for the fiscal year ending 
     September 30, 2001, and for other purposes.

  Mr. MOORE. Mr. Chairman, I rise today in opposition to H.R. 4871, the 
FY 2001 treasury-postal appropriations bill.
  I am pleased that the committee reported an appropriations bill that 
strongly supports law enforcement efforts in this country. Fully 
funding the administration's gun-law-enforcement initiatives, including 
a proposal to add 600 employees to the agency to more fully enforce 
existing gun laws, suggests that this Congress is finally getting 
serious about stopping the scourge of gun crimes that have crippled 
this nation.
  I hope this is a sign of more to come in promoting public safety and 
preventing these senseless crimes by approving legislation on juvenile 
justice which has languished in a conference committee for over a year.
  This bill also contains a provision that I strongly support which 
would roll back the 0.5% surcharge on federal employee retirement 
contributions. This increase was mandated by the 1997 balanced budget 
law and has disproportionately affected federal employees by taxing 
more of their gross income for retirement than their private sector 
counterparts contribute.
  Just yesterday, the CBO announced that we will run in FY 2001 a 
surplus of over $100 billion. Mr. Speaker, the budget is balanced: it 
is time to stop funding surpluses at the expense of our hard working 
federal employees.
  While I support many of the priorities in this bill and commend the 
committee on a job well done in allocating finite resources, I remain 
concerned about one provision in this bill that suggest this Congress 
is not serious about holding the line on spending.
  Mr. Chairman, about a decade ago, through legislative slight of hand, 
Congress passed a law to allow for the automatic annual increase in 
Members' salaries. This was a politically motivated move to shield 
Congress from casting embarrassing votes to increase their own pay. 
While we were technically afforded the opportunity to vote against an 
increase by casting a no vote on a procedural issue, the fact remains 
that by voting in support of this legislation, we will be voting for 
our own pay raises.
  This will be a vote that comes at the expense of other mandates an 
earlier Congress created: Two years ago the House voted overwhelmingly 
for the IRS Reform and Restructuring Act which followed recommendations 
of a commission that studied the IRS and stated that IRS budgets 
``should receive stable funding for the next three years so that the 
leaders can . . . improve taxpayer service and compliance.''
  Mr. Chairman, this bill, contrary to the recommendations of a 
bipartisan commission and contrary to the will of this House, cuts $465 
million from the administration's request. If this Congress is serious 
about holding the line on spending, we would not hold our other 
priorities hostage to our desires of a larger paycheck.
  I will be voting against this bill and I will be voting against a pay 
increase--I urge my colleagues to put their money where their mouth is 
and reject final passage of this legislation.




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