Christopher Shays

as a cosponsor and longtime supporter of H.R. 980, I am pleased this legislation is on the House floor today. This bill will take the important step of guaranteeing firefighters and police officers the right to discuss workplace issues…

this amendment transfers $6.8 million from the Department of Labor Departmental Management Salaries and Expenses and $1.5 million from the Department of Education Departmental Management Account to fund a $6.8 million increase in the…

I regret to say it's a debate that's under a closed rule that doesn't allow all aspects of this issue to come to the forefront, and I deeply regret that. We asked for a new Secretary of Defense. We wanted Rumsfeld replaced, and he was…

I love the introducer of this amendment, but I don't love her amendment. It would reduce a much-needed funding increase for the National Endowment for the Arts from $160 million in the bill to the President's requested level of $128…

Mr. Speaker, today we stand with 69 million households in celebrating the joy of pet ownership and recognizing the obligations of responsible animal care as we call on this Congress to establish a National Pet Week. Some 63 percent of…

Mr. Speaker, on March 30, 1973, American combat troops serving in Vietnam completed their service and returned home to the U.S. After 8 years of hard-fought battle and the loss of over 58,000 soldiers, we welcomed our servicemen and women…

I thank the gentlelady from D.C. and look forward to the time that she will be a full Member of this Chamber, with all the rights and privileges. Much has been said about the life of Jack Valenti, and rightfully so. It is impossible to sum…

just so the debate is a little more accurate, and we will see how the vote turns out whether I ask for a roll call vote or not, would it not be fair to say that they can live with the money they have, but they would like to have more and…

I have strong concern about the lack of any dollars for economic development in the fiscal year 2008 budget, and that is what we are talking about. We are not talking about an emergency supplemental, which, by the way, has lots of strings…

I oppose the Pitts amendment. I support strongly the attempt by the subcommittee to give the President flexibility to implement prevention programs that fit the countries' current AIDS epidemic. I salute the President's Emergency Plan For…

I first want to thank Mr. Price for the work he has done on this legislation, and Mr. Rogers. I know we are going to be spending a lot more money, but this is Homeland Security, and I intend to support this legislation. The amendment would…

I feel this passion because I think the House of Representatives is doing something it will deeply regret. What it's doing is it's bypassing the Bureau of Indian Affairs process in the name of fairness when there is nothing fair about what…

Reclaiming my time, they recognized name only. That is all the tribe asked for. They wanted nothing else. And it wasn't Congress that did it against their objection. They did exactly what they asked for.

And I might add a former Marine, and I guess always a Marine, who was wounded in battle in Vietnam and was left on the battlefield for 3 hours before he was brought to safety, and we will always be grateful for that service.

I wanted to be here simply for the novelty of Republicans and Democrats trying to talk about where we could find common ground. My basic view is that we made a mistake going in given that we didn't find weapons of mass destruction. But I…

What was stunning about the 9/11 Commission was it was Republicans and Democrats, liberals and conservatives all trying to find common ground for addressing what was really a frightening sea change in our society, and that was the…

Mr. Murtha, they are not going to take 2 months off. They will probably take less time off than this Congress has taken.

During the last 2 years, as chairman of the Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations, we held four oversight hearings on the federally funded medical monitoring and registry programs that were…

I am particularly amazed to think that an amendment that I was offering, supported by Interpol, and I would like to submit this letter from Ron Noble, the Secretary General, addressed to me from Interpol. It is one page. In this letter, he…

I would add to that but also make the point that this won't be the first city that will have to deal with this kind of issue. I mean, we want to be able to protect and prevent a terrorist attack, but there may be some other event. And what…

The other outrage that is happening is there is a bill, H.R. 1294, that is going to recognize six Indian tribes, bypass the Bureau of Indian Affairs. Corruption is alive and well in this place again because that's what we did a few years…

I totally trust and understand his sincerity, but everything he said there are significant answers to. And all he has done is raised even more questions. He is basically saying to pass this bill and rush it through the Senate real quickly…

Let me just point out that States do recognize. But if you establish as a precedent that all tribes recognized by States will get Federal recognition, then you have just included a whole number of Connecticut tribes that will have State…

So your reference that one tribe would clearly not want gambling, it is a fact that these tribes did want gambling and the only way you could get this bill through the Chamber was to take it out, and you said on the floor, I think I heard…

Could I ask the gentleman, he mentioned one tribe that he referred to as a Christian tribe, are we recognizing one tribe or six tribes?