Political Quotes

“Mr. Chairman, I strongly oppose this amendment, as it takes a meat-ax approach to cutting this bill by $31 million with an across-the-board cut of 1 percent. The amendment exempts the Capitol Police and its buildings, as well as the Sergeant at Arms. It does not exempt our staff, including the offerer's own staff because it would cut the Members' Representational Allowance. It would also cut the Congressional Research Service, the Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Budget Office, committees of Congress, and the Office of Compliance. The Legislative Branch bill, Mr. Chairman, has been flat for 3 years. And this bill finally provides a modest overall increase of 2.1 percent, but because we have not kept up with inflation, each year we are buying less and less for our dollar. The Congressional Research Service, for example, is still below FY 2010 levels and reports it has lost 13 percent of its purchasing power. We can't continue to do more with less. There is a reason the perception of Congress is damaged. We are damaging our ability to write and analyze legislation and have serious debates because we take the politically expedient route, like the across-the-board cuts, because they play well during town halls. But if we bothered to explain the brain drain within the halls of Congress and the need to boost funding for staff to do oversight, I have the belief that our constituents would understand that.…”