[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 157 (2011), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 6041]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         HISTORIC SPENDING CUTS

  The SPEAKER. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Texas (Mr. 
Olson) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. OLSON. Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong support of H.R. 1473, 
a continuing resolution which will fund our government and, most 
importantly, our troops' families for the rest of the fiscal year and 
will help generate a better environment for job creation.
  While this final agreement is far from perfect--more cuts going 
forward are absolutely needed--this agreement is a victory for the 
American people. At $38.5 billion in cuts, H.R. 1473 represents the 
largest spending cut since World War II. Domestic spending will 
actually fall by 4 percent this year with the passage of this CR.
  We accomplished this historic cut just months after President Obama 
asked Congress for a spending freeze. That would have meant zero, nada, 
nil, cuts in spending this year. In fact, our Federal Government will 
spend $78.5 billion less than President Obama proposed this year with 
the passage of H.R. 1473.
  These historic cuts would not be possible without the strong and 
constant support of the American people to end the out-of-control 
spending in Washington. Their voices were heard loud and clear on 
November 2.
  House Republicans were able to translate the people's call for 
reining in spending into the largest non-defense spending cut in 
history. Washington is no longer talking about if we should cut 
spending; we are talking about how much we should cut spending. This is 
the American people's victory, and they deserve the credit for 
providing the support and momentum to change our debate.
  This bill is also a victory for my home State of Texas and for the 
good people of the 22nd Congressional District, whom I am honored to 
represent here in Washington. Importantly, H.R. 1473 repeals the 
Doggett amendment, a heavy-handed regulation that was forcing Texas, 
and only Texas, to violate its own constitution and spend education 
funds as the Federal Government dictated while giving every other State 
in the Nation the flexibility to spend their funds as they see fit.
  The Doggett amendment, which was inserted in last summer's State 
government bailout bill, singled out Texas by attaching 
unconstitutional strings to $830 million in funding. No other State 
faced such treatment.
  Teachers across Texas have faced the threat of losing their jobs with 
this expected shortfall in education money. But passage of this bill 
will right this egregious wrong for the great State of Texas.
  Mr. Speaker, passage of this measure today means we will have 
succeeded in reducing discretionary spending to pre-bailout stimulus 
levels. We will be lowering the baseline for next year's budget, which 
will result in hundreds of billions of dollars in savings over the next 
decade.
  Most importantly, we are setting the stage for the real challenge 
that comes next: cutting trillions in spending through the new 
Republican budget, the Path to Prosperity. We didn't get into this 
financial crisis overnight, and we are not getting out of it overnight.
  But today, for the first time in years, Washington will begin to 
tighten its belt, just as families across America do every day. This is 
just the beginning of an important first step forward in changing the 
culture of spending the people's tax dollars with reckless abandon. 
America is open for business again.
  I urge my colleagues to vote for H.R. 1473.

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