[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 12946-12947]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            GOVERNMENT WASTE

  (Mr. CHOCOLA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. CHOCOLA. Mr. Speaker, I came to Congress from a business 
background, and I ran for Congress in large part because I believe that 
we need more of a small business perspective here in Washington, 
especially when it comes to eliminating wasteful spending.
  Every day, the families and businesses in my district have to make 
tough decisions. They have to meet a payroll, they have to live within 
a budget, and small businesses and families must eliminate wasteful 
spending. I do not think the Federal Government should be any 
different.

[[Page 12947]]

  This year the Heritage Foundation identified $386 billion of wasteful 
Federal Government spending. Mr. Speaker, that was $386 billion. If 
Congress would only eliminate waste, mismanagement, and inefficiency in 
the Federal Government, we could save the taxpayers billions and 
billions of dollars.
  But it is not enough to just complain. We have to do something about 
it. This week the majority leader, the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
DeLay), and the Committee on the Budget chairman, the gentleman from 
Iowa (Mr. Nussle), announced a significant effort to root out and 
eliminate government waste during the 108th Congress. I applaud their 
effort, and I pledge that I will join them and my colleagues to reduce 
waste, fraud, and abuse in government in my time in Congress. I urge my 
colleagues on both sides of the aisle to join in this effort.

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