Sam Farr

I have to confess something here: I am an addict. I have been told that our office is one of the 10 top users of CRS.

There was no response.

But not our staffs. Haven't had a COLA increase in 5 years.

I think I was agreeing with your suggestion that we ought to lead by example.

If we are going to not allow anybody else to have weapons in this Capitol, you certainly shouldn't allow Members to have them.

It is a good thing we are leading by example.

Well, why did $33 million have to be returned?

You ought to be the champion for our own offices.

Just a suggestion on the Sodexo issue.

So here we are going to take all our staff, and you have got to go through double, triple inspection, but Members can walk in here with a weapon and you don't even know if they have it, to get away with it.

I think that we have to set priorities.

I would love to have this budget for my town, where we really do have threats.

I think mission creep is, one of the criticisms I have of your team.

These discussions on our budget essentially are our household finance.

I hope that is not going to create light pollution.

What triggered it is this magnetometer, putting it in the Longworth Building, in the garage. And it just seemed, in looking at it, is why here, why now, why this place?

I am getting congratulated by everybody. Half of them are friends and the other half of them are congratulations and good riddance.

Perhaps that could be some report language just to explore it.

I think it is time that we revisit that.

I hope that we can use--I mean, the dream here, the idea is, if we are going to move one, let's move all, and let's all be in one place.

Yes, I presume that the decision to move sort of out of the Washington area was a strategic one, plus probably cost-effective for real estate purposes.

I remain convinced that we could go back and try to reform that program and make sure that if it were reinstituted, we could keep young people engaged.

Can you answer that question on the budget neutral, whether it is budget neutral or not?

I think that by doing this we are questioning the loyalty of our own staff.

We all need to be focused on safety and morale. Poor morale could lead to crazy gun shooters.