[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 160 (2014), Part 9]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page 12349]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 H.R. 5016, ``FINANCIAL SERVICES AND GENERAL GOVERNMENT APPROPRIATIONS 
                                 ACT''

                                  _____
                                 

                          HON. EARL BLUMENAUER

                               of oregon

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, July 17, 2014

  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, I voted against H.R. 5016, the Financial 
Services and General Government Appropriations Act.
  The bill cut too deeply into many important services--including an 
insane $340 million cut to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS). No 
business cripples its account receivables department and neither should 
we. The Congressional Budget Office has found that cutting the IRS's 
ability to enforce tax law ultimately costs more in lost revenue than 
the money saved in the initial cut. This is simply bad policy that does 
not save the government money.
  I was pleased to see the rejection of an amendment offered by 
Representative Fleming, which would have rolled back the 
Administration's guidance to banks seeking to provide services to 
state-legal marijuana businesses, and the adoption of an amendment 
offered by Representative Heck, which will increase access to these 
services. These were two strong votes to stop forcing state-legal 
marijuana businesses to operate only in cash, a situation that is 
unsafe and invites illegal activity. This was a victory for commonsense 
reform.
  This was a rare bright spot, however, in otherwise reckless 
legislation that slows the enactment of effective financial 
regulations, reduces our ability to collect much-needed revenue and 
meddles in the affairs of the D.C. government. It was for these reasons 
that I opposed this legislation and was disappointed to see it pass.

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