Katie Porter: “I rise, albeit reluctantly, to support H.R. 4328, the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations…”

“I rise, albeit reluctantly, to support H.R. 4328, the Omnibus Consolidated and Emergency Supplemental Appropriations Act, 1999. I use the term reluctantly advisedly, since this bill contains many flaws. I will leave to others, at another time and in another place to judge the strategy that has brought us to this legislative and budgetary circumstance. For myself, I will only say that the bill raises profound concerns. This bill contains within it the Labor-HHS bill--a bill that was considered by neither house of Congress. Surely, this failure is repugnant to the values of representative government imbedded in our Constitution, and should never be allowed to happen again; The bill is expensive--very expensive, and make no mistake, its out-year impact on the budget will be profound; This bill contains numerous authorizations, including major tax legislation and significant changes to social and other programs. Some of these provisions are fully conferenced, some passed only one house and some have never seen the light of day in either house. Again, a massive breach of our legislative responsibilities; While we have increased funding for education, inevitably we also have increased the Federal role, a very troubling turn of events; Staff is important, and we could not operate without them.…”