Jeff Flake

I just want to rise in strong support of this amendment. The gentleman is right; this was not asked for by the Department of Defense. And if we could save a half billion dollars, money that will not affect the war or the warfighter--but we…

Again, this is a package that we simply cannot afford. We cannot go on as if the deficit and the debt don't matter. Not only that they don't matter, but we expand them considerably. We can continue the tax cuts for every American. We can…

I would love to hear an explanation from the Rules Committee as to why this wasn't included and why only amendments that may make Members feel good about voting on but have no possibility of delaying this package were even considered.

I rise in opposition to this bill. There's no denying that there are issues related to Chinese currency valuation. Unfortunately, the passage of this bill today will do little to address those concerns. Instead, approval of this bill will…

Those who advocate for this legislation are forgetting one very, very important thing: we are broke.

Again, you have got to have a Federal nexus somewhere. If you are spending taxpayers' money, it helps to say why in the world should the Federal Government be involved at all. I would submit that if you argue that the Federal Government…

I thank the Chair. This amendment would prohibit $150,000 from being spent on the construction of a child's playground. Now I am the father of five children. I understand the importance of having a place for kids to play. Believe me, kids…

Again, this bill has 461 earmarks, $328 million in those earmarks. I wish we could challenge them all. We can't. We've only been allowed the opportunity to challenge four of them. So we will have a rollcall vote on four amendments to…

Before I start on this amendment, let me address what was just said here. We're told by challenging these earmarks, $300 million in this bill, that we, those who want to save some money here, know the cost of everything and the value of…

I don't think we want to talk about bull. I don't know how it is in Wisconsin, but in Arizona, to have a bill that has more than 400 earmarks worth more than $300 million is not an insignificant sum. Now, you can have a chart that takes…

This amendment would prohibit $1 million from going to the Rhode Island Department of Transportation for the Blackstone River Bikeway, and it would reduce the overall cost of the bill by a commensurate amount. This particular earmark would…

Let me just say, I misspoke earlier; I left off three zeros. This amendment would save $1.2 billion, not $1.2 million. It's easy to mess that up these days, given all the zeros we're talking about. The U.S. Department of Transportation…

Madam Speaker, slamming the door on the legislative process. My taking 10 minutes to talk about this rule is slamming the door on the legislative process. How is that? What I am here to talk about is how the door has been slammed on the…

I raise this point of order today not to debate a point of unfunded mandates, although there are probably some in the legislation. It is simply the only opportunity that members of the minority have to stand up and talk about this process…

I want to say just a few words about missed opportunities and misplaced priorities. This is typically appropriation season, but this is only our second appropriation bill--and maybe final appropriation bill that we do all year. We…

I plan to withdraw this amendment. I had planned to from the beginning. What I wanted to do was come down here and explain the spoils system that this kind of earmarking represents. The problem, the gentleman mentioned that this amendment…

This amendment is straightforward. It would simply prevent the funding of all Member-requested earmarks in the bill. It would return the funds to the original accounts. I'm not here to dispute the merits of these projects. I have no doubt…

I mean, it's just nutty for us to spend so much time on these things and then say, I'm sorry, we don't have time for Members to offer amendments on appropriation bills to actually strike spending so that we're not borrowing 43 cents on…

You know, this is a different kind of July than we usually experience here in Congress. Usually we're doing appropriation bills. We aren't doing them this month. We aren't likely to do any until after the election. Isn't that something…

Just days ago the State of Arizona lost a kind and gentle soul when Mitch Menlove passed away at the tender age of 36. Mitch leaves behind a record of honor and integrity among those he worked with in a successful career in public affairs…

I thank the gentlelady for accepting the amendment. Some have asked, Why do this if there's no intention to earmark the program? Why do we need this language? Unfortunately, in the past, with programs that have been adopted like this…

This is a straightforward amendment and should be noncontroversial. H.R. 5114 establishes a new grant program that would provide grants to local government agencies responsible for flood plain management in communities that participate in…

Recent press reports indicate that the House leadership is considering a rules change which would diminish the scope and authority of the Office of Congressional Ethics, or OCE. This is an apparent response to the OCE's decision to forward…

I rise in support of the amendment. We can learn from history but we really can't revise it as much as we want to try. We're hearing the same arguments now that we heard about Fannie and Freddie, that there's no trouble, they're solvent…

I thank the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Larsen) for introducing this resolution. And I urge my colleagues to support it. We want to express our condolences to the families and the friends and loved ones of those who perished in the fire…