Mr. Chairman, I speak to the whole House when I say that the subject of the legislation we find ourselves debating on the floor here today is the rent-to-own industry and the need to have some floor of regulations over that industry. There…

the body has just heard a lot of information. It was probably about equally divided between information that is not relevant to the legislation before us and misinformation about the legislation. It is very hard in 5 minutes to rebut all…

Customs currently can do border searches of everything that enters or leaves the United States--with one exception: outbound mail shipped by the U.S. Postal Service. The U.S. Customs Service should be able to inspect merchandise that is…

Mr. Chairman, the approach taken in this legislation to outbound mail only makes common sense. There ought to be parity between outbound mail and inbound mail. Presently, there is absolutely no dispute that customs can search all inbound…

I want to stress the great consensus of opinion on most aspects of this deposit insurance legislation... it is 10 percent of this bill that has caused 90 percent of the problems for certain members of the committee. What I want to address…

when terrorists were positively identified, the INS could not program its computers to find out if they had any information on those terrorists. Not only that, but they issued them visas. The story of the INS' approval of terrorist visas…

President Bush's historic tax cut was a bipartisan achievement. Only three times since World War II have we had an across-the-board tax cut. The first one was in 1960 under President Kennedy, then under President Reagan in 1980, and…

it is obvious that the Members in the minority do not have any problem debating this issue. They do not mind talking about postponing or delaying the tax cuts. They do not mind speaking out and blaming the tax cuts for all sorts of evil…

there they go again. They are talking about Social Security and throwing out all these things, throwing out numbers. The bottom line is this: If my colleagues want a tax increase, then submit a bill, submit legislation, and tell the…

we made a commitment to the American people to give them tax relief. Let us honor that commitment. The American people should get the tax cuts that they have been promised. We should not postpone them, we should not delay them. We are all…

Well, this is from CBO, and what it says is that 87 percent of the deficit is because of the economic conditions are spending, spending, only 13 percent as a result of tax relief.

when Congress makes a commitment to give Americans tax relief, it should honor that commitment. To put it plainly, Americans should get the tax cuts that they have been promised. Americans should have the tax relief that they desperately…

Mr. Speaker, there are several problems that the membership ought to have with this amendment, things that I hope that the gentleman from New York (Mr. LaFalce) will respond to, concerns which we have. My first concern is that we are…

there is one story that has not been in the papers of this country. That is the fact that the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young) and the gentleman from Florida (Mr. Mica) were not stampeded into passing a bill 3 weeks ago; but they made…

Better coordination of the antifraud efforts of the more than 250 Federal, State, and local agencies that regulate the banking, securities, and insurance industry is long overdue. As my colleagues know, it is often society's most…

America has proven time and time again that when we as a people are challenged and we dedicate ourselves to meeting that challenge, nothing can stop our Nation and nothing can stop our people. On September 11, our country was challenged…

Mr. Speaker, we learned something 6 weeks ago. It was a very painful lesson. We learned that legislation was needed to provide law enforcement and intelligence additional tools that they needed to address the threat of terrorism and…

Mr. Speaker, a formal authorization for use of force now is just that, a formality. We have now been in war and have been since Tuesday morning. As Americans, we did not seek this war, but we will not shirk from defending our country. Let…

In moments of tragedy such as we are now witnessing, stories of sacrifice and heroism always emerge to make us proud. That will continue to be the case as we dig out from the rubble of this cowardly assault by yesterday's terrorists…

Mr. Chairman, the steel industry in Alabama is struggling. We have just lost two steel mills. That means that steel workers, iron workers, boiler makers, electricians, sheet metal workers, railroad crafts have been put out of work. The…

when someone stands in the well and questions the constitutionality of an amendment, then I think the Members ought to listen. I think they ought to take note, because that is a serious charge. It would be a convincing argument if one was…

there was an article on the front page of the Washington Post on Monday, and it says, ``Oil money is fueling Sudan's war''. It goes on to say that Arab is killing non-Arab or African and Muslims are killing Christians. But one thing is in…

back in September of 1999, when this bill came before us, one of the opponents of the bill said this, because the criminal attack on a woman causing her to lose a child and an abortion are too easy to confuse, we need to vote against this…

Indiana is losing two great Representatives when this session ends: the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. Pease) and the gentleman from Indiana (Mr. McIntosh). I think I can speak for all Members when I say that this is not only a loss for…

we use a lot of figures; we talk about millions of people, we talk about a half million people dying. I want to talk about a city of 100,000 people. In a city of 100,000 people, 50 people this year will develop colorectal cancer. Now, of…