Spencer Bachus

Today we not only honor the three astronauts, we also honor those other heroes at NASA, for their achievement is a tribute to the thousands of engineers, scientists and others at NASA whose extraordinary efforts made the journey possible…

I like to quote from the President of the Organization of Police Chiefs of the United States. He says this amendment will have a significant detrimental impact on the ability of law enforcement agencies nationwide to effectively…

Thank goodness that today we have a modern financial bill that is before us to vote that will save the American people $15 billion a year, that will increase privacy protections. You can tell your bank, ``No, I would rather not have that…

I simply say that is it not ironic that Mrs. Parks, by remaining seated, stood up for all of us and for our right to fair treatment and to equality. For that, we are a better country and a better people. This is a just and overdue honor.

What this resolution says, and I hope it was a message that we carried to Mexico, is that this fight against narco-traffickers is a dangerous one, and we simply do not need to let our law enforcement agencies be made pawns in a diplomatic…

Congress has arrived at the time when we and the Nation must look beyond the polls, the media, and beyond the political rhetoric and consider the grave matter of voting on the impeachment of the Nation's President

I have shared with the gentleman my concern, and I ask the gentleman and the committee to support me in separate legislation to achieve the goal of limiting abusive contracting practices at the CDFI fund. I intend to introduce legislation.

That being the case, would the gentleman join me in a request to the Department of Treasury that it immediately bring its contracting practices at the CDFI fund into conformance with the intent of the VA-HUD conference report language…

I respect what the gentlewoman said, and I agree with what she has said in part. I would say that there are many questions because we simply do not know, we have not had an explanation. And until we have an explanation, it is hard for us…

I think from a technical standpoint, that is what I will do. I am relying on the good faith of Treasury, and we are going to go forward with this investigation. I would hope that they will simply acknowledge this misconduct, which I think…

I think that a lot of things have already been investigated and decided, and there is some action that could be taken this week. That is my fervent hope, and I hope the Secretary of the Treasury will show some good faith in setting…

I do think he has a role to play, and he needs to play that role. And the agreement that my colleagues have outlined I think is our agreement, but I just hope they are as serious as we profess to be about this.

I would say that it ought to be deeply disturbing to him to have something like this happen, and him to be involved in it only because he is an advocate and supporter of the program.

I think what we are doing here today is healthy because we are not simply slamming each other's motivations. We are not trying to grab this for political purposes. I think that it does do a disservice to our debate when we characterize the…

I will say this, and I say this with some hesitance of being misinterpreted, but I am going to say it, President Clinton was a supporter of this program before it was created. He advocated it before it was created. He was a proponent of…

I do agree that we are caught on the horns of a dilemma, and that you can advocate for this program and condemn the act that happened. So I do not fault the gentleman for that. We have been hurt in our oversight. I do not question the…

Let me say this. On April 14, I announced my intention to review the files. These documents were created on the night of April 17 and the morning of April 18. I have been attempting since that time to find out the truth, and it was only on…

It is not, and I would say this, not for bad paperwork, but for a process that was unethical, that was misleading, that misrepresented that there was in fact to these four applicants, they were awarded money. They did not go through the…

I think that the two gentleman we are here to give tribute to today are two of the big reasons for that. Glen Browder and Tom Bevill, you all were here before I came. You worked well together. You worked well with Sonny Callahan and Bill…

I will simply say this, Glen. That is a devastating illness. You have been at the forefront of that and you are to be commended on that. And all our gulf veterans and all of us who support the military owe you a debt of gratitude for that.

I want to warn the Members of this body, if you are concerned about those triple trailers, which in negotiations they are trying to turn loose on our highways, and they will kill our senior citizens, and if you are concerned about these…

Mr. Chairman, I would simply close by saying every time we have witnessed a terrorist act throughout this world, we can know that they have probably used counterfeit currency to fund their operations. Not only that, but drug smuggling…

It seems again, as my colleagues know, that this is something that would perhaps be better left until Tuesday to at least give some of us an opportunity to review it with attorney generals.