Mike Honda: “I would like to begin by thanking Chairman Crenshaw, the Appropriations majority staff, and his personal staff for the…”

“I would like to begin by thanking Chairman Crenshaw, the Appropriations majority staff, and his personal staff for the professionalism shown during this process. While it is not the bill I would have written, it is the process that I would have followed. As for the bill, the legislative branch minus the Senate is being cut by 6.4 percent from fiscal year 2011 and 9 percent from fiscal year 2010. These cuts are being done while we had to fix a $13 million hole for the Capitol Police because of their accounting mistake in fiscal year 2010. I believe these cuts are harmful to our Members' ability to serve their constituents and to the House's responsibility to provide effective oversight. The budget allocation is what one could expect given the majority is also cutting women and children's nutrition programs, consumer protection, and other important programs in other bills. The only thing this bill has succeeded in doing, however, is joining the other flawed bills by cutting at the expense of jobs, strong oversight, and commonsense efficiencies. Maybe with this bill, the smallest of all 12, and the one that funds our Members' own operations, the majority will see the real-life impacts of these cuts, one of which is not real deficit reduction.…”