[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 18]
[House]
[Page 24328]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                           DANCING WITH CZARS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentleman from Texas (Mr. Poe) is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, we have 45 czars in America, and the 
dance card keeps growing. The President has the right to get advice 
from as many people as he wants to. And that's not new with our 
Presidents, and that is not a problem. Advisers are one thing, but 
policymakers are another thing altogether.
  If someone is putting a policy in place, if someone is to govern and 
rule over the rest of us, they must be confirmed by the United States 
Senate. That's what the Constitution says and demands. After all, 
article II, section 2 states in part that the President may appoint 
ambassadors and other public ministers with the advice and consent of 
the Senate.
  The American people have been asking a lot of questions about these 
czars. Who are these czars? What do they do? Is this a shadow 
government? What are the Cabinet secretaries doing? Why aren't they in 
charge of implementing policy instead of these czars? Do Cabinet 
secretaries report to our shadow government czars? Is that what 
happens? And why haven't we had transparency or confirmation hearings 
on these czars?
  Now, Madam Speaker, here are some of the czars that we have. It's not 
all 45, but it's some of them. And let me list some of them for you. We 
have the Afghan-Pakistan czar. We have the AIDS czar and the auto 
recovery czar. We are getting a behavioral science czar. Now, what's 
that about, spanking of kids? No. It is actually about the study of 
human behavior and how the government can influence human conduct. 
Sounds a bit like the book ``1984'' to me.
  We have a bailout czar. We have a border czar. Is the border czar 
supposed to secure the border or open up the border? Who knows? Nobody 
is telling us.
  We have a climate change czar, a copyright czar, a counterterrorism 
czar. We have a cyber security czar and a communications diversity 
czar. Let me repeat that one. A communications diversity czar. 
Ironically, this communications diversity czar is now barred from 
talking or communicating with the media. Now isn't that lovely? That's 
kind of odd in my opinion.
  We have the disinformation czar. Now what does that person do? It 
sounds like he should be called the government propaganda czar to me.
  We have two economic czars. We probably could use a few more of 
those. We have an education czar. We have an energy CIA. There's a food 
czar, the government performance czar, the Great Lakes czar, the Gitmo 
closure czar and the health care czar.
  We have an info tech czar--well, we had an info tech czar, Madam 
Speaker. His last day in D.C. Government was March 4, but on March 12 
the FBI raided his office and arrested two staffers. That position is 
still open for people who want to apply.
  We have an intelligence czar. We have a Latin American czar, a 
Mideast peace czar and a Mideast policy czar. We have a pay czar and a 
regulatory czar. We have a religion, or God, czar; a safe school czar 
and a science czar. Now there's a beaut. Our science czar wrote a 
controversial book promoting population control.
  We have a stimulus czar. And then, of course, there's the TARP czar, 
the technology czar, the trade czar and the urban affairs czar. We have 
the war czar, the water czar and, of course, there is a weapons czar.
  Now, Madam Speaker, we know very little about those czars or what 
they do. We don't know who pays them or whether they paid their income 
tax. So Congress should defund these czars and no taxpayer money should 
go to pay for them or their salaries or their staffs.
  After all, Madam Speaker, since we continue to dance with the czars, 
it would be nice to know who brought us to the dance.
  And that's just the way it is.

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