[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 149 (2003), Part 7]
[House]
[Page 9289]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 THANKING HOUSE AND COMMITTEE STAFF FOR HARD WORK ON HOUSE CONCURRENT 
                             RESOLUTION 95

  (Mr. NUSSLE asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. NUSSLE. Mr. Speaker, there are obviously a number of people who 
have toiled here late tonight. We want to thank the House staff that 
have stayed with us here this evening, and the reporters and the 
Clerk's office. We appreciate their hard work and sticking with us 
through these things.
  I would like to thank my staff of the Committee on the Budget on the 
majority side. Rich Meade is my chief of staff, and we have a number of 
very professional people who got us to this point in time.
  The Members get to make the speeches and to cast the votes, but the 
staff do the hard work in getting us here. In both the House and in the 
other body, we have had a great working relationship with those 
professional staffs. We want to thank them and congratulate them for a 
job well done.

                              {time}  0245

  I would also like to thank the members of my committee who worked 
hard on this, as well as the members of my committee on the opposite 
side of the aisle.
  I have no better competitor in this process and no one that I respect 
more than the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt); and while we 
have to differ so on substance tonight, we do share a love for the 
process and enjoyment in working through these issues even though we do 
not always get our way in the final analysis. But I want to 
congratulate the gentleman for his work. As I say, there is no one who 
knows this process and this budget issue better than my friend and 
colleague, the gentleman from South Carolina (Mr. Spratt).
  Mr. SPRATT. Mr. Speaker, will the gentleman yield?
  Mr. NUSSLE. I yield to the gentleman from South Carolina.
  Mr. SPRATT. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding, and I 
would say that on both sides of the aisle the staff are the unseen 
players in this process. They make an enormous effort, and we have a 
good working relationship on this committee, which we prize because we 
have mutual respect.
  I would like to pay tribute to my staff who put a herculean effort to 
get this budget resolution on the floor through all the processes it 
has to go.
  First, to my very able and loyal and energetic chief of staff, Tom 
Kahn; to Joe Minarik, who is our chief economist and is widely 
experienced; to Jim Klumpner, who is also an excellent economist on our 
staff; to Sheila McDowell; to Kimberly Overbeek, who is super with the 
numbers; to Andrea Weathers; to Linda Bywaters; to Arthur Burris, who 
is indefatigable; to Sarah Abernathy; and to Pepper Santalucia. I am 
looking at Antonio Santalucia and Pepper would not come to me. To some 
new additions to our staff: Mike McCord, who does defense work; 
Jennifer Friedman, who came over from OMB; Diana Meredith and Andy 
Smallian, a great group of people, a great team effort and very 
professional staff.
  And last but not least, Lisa Venus, who has been with us for several 
years who is assistant counsel and a very, very able staff member who 
was here on the floor with us tonight.
  Mr. Speaker, I appreciate the chairman allowing me the opportunity to 
pay tribute to my staff and to the effort they put in to making the 
budget process work this year.

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