Norman D. Dicks

I worry about the economic recovery. I worry about the situation we face with the state and local governments.

I honestly believe that the cuts we are making are too severe and that we need to have a compromise.

Stable democracies and prosperous communities are less likely to pose a threat to their neighbors or to us.

Yet, through our appropriations process, I am still optimistic we can balance our domestic and international priorities.

Along with Defense, the State Department and USAID are critical components of the U.S. National Security Strategy and essential to making Americans safe at home and abroad.

I was just glad to hear the litany of these things that you voted against. Are you still for those Civil War battlefields?

We are going to have to get together and work out an agreement and come out together and support it in order to get this through. This is what we did with Bob Dole and Tip O'Neill and Ronald Reagan. So, this can be done, but we have to…

I think that 2 weeks is not enough time to reach an agreement on H.R. 1 with the other body, and I'm afraid we're going to be back here doing this again. We opposed H.R. 1 because we believe it would have the effect of slamming on the…

I applaud these modified open rules. And on the regular bills on appropriations, we hope--Mr. Rogers and I have been in contact, we're going to get these bills done in a timely way. And we want open rules, and we want to be able to have…

A letter signed by 300 of America's leading economists makes the argument that cutting investments this quickly will undermine growth. Among the original signers from Stanford alone: Kenneth Arrow, Martin Carnoy, Paul David, Mordecai Kurz…

That was a good process. I appreciate what you all did in having an open rule. I applaud Chairman Rogers and Chairman Dreier. That is the right thing to do. It was appreciated on both sides of the aisle.

So, again, it was the Democratic Congress that cut the $41 billion. And every reputable economist says what you did in H.R. 1 is going to have a negative effect on the economy. And so I hope you all think carefully about what you're about…